The risk of catching HIV is low compared to many other infections.<\/p>\n
So your situation is common to still be negative even if without condoms with someone who is HIV positive. Your negative result is also related to good luck – so it is not good to rely on this in the future.<\/p>\n
As your partner has just started treatment, the risk of transmission will already be much lower. Then, once his viral load becomes undetectable the risk is effectively zero.<\/p>\n
The PARTNER studies<\/a> showed that ART stops sexual transmission. \u00a0For example, after more than 100,000 times that an HIV positive person had sex without a condom with an HIV negative partner, there were ZERO transmissions. Viral load just needs to be undetectable on ART.<\/p>\n This and other studies led to the U=U campaign (undetectable = untransmittable). This\u00a0guide to HIV testing and risks of sexual transmission<\/a>\u00a0includes more info on transmission risk. Also, the answer to Question 9 on our most asked questions page: If your partner is not on treatment or if he still has detectable viral load, then using condoms will make sure you stay negative. Another option is to talk to your doctor about PtRP, which is where you can take a pill that will protect you against HIV. The UK guide to PrEP<\/a> has more info.<\/p>\n Note: This answer was updated in 2016, 2018 and 2022 from a question first posted online in July 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My partner and I have been together for six years. He tested positive three years ago.<\/p>\n Automatically assuming I would be infected already we continued to have unsafe sex. I never went for a test until three years later in 2012. <\/p>\n He was beginning his treatment and wanted me to do the same, but when I went to my local clinic I tested HIV negative. <\/p>\n Can I trust these results or should I worry about testing HIV positive in near future? I’m so confused!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,23,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-topics","category-hiv-transmission","category-sero-different-couples"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25174,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7308\/revisions\/25174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nhttps:\/\/i-base.info\/u-equals-u\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\nCan we stop using condoms if viral load is undetectable on treatment?<\/a><\/p>\n