Could I Finally Be Infected??

[PozDesire]

I've been taking loads for 30 yrs safely out of being misinformed about hiv.   Since I love being a bottom so much I tried to educated myself about the subject a little more, then switched from condoms only to bareback & loved it.   I was no longer concerned about being gifted because eventually it's going to happen.   It late July I had a anon hookup, no need to explain why we hooked up, but let's just say he bred me that morning.   Now here it is September and I've been running fever and cold chills for over a week, coughing, and feeling tired all day, 80+ degree weather outside but I'm wrapped in a blanket.   I know the typical response will probably say to simply go get checked if I'm concerned, but I'm still going to ask anyway......I haven't been with anyone since that morning and I was just tested for CoVid.   But how likely is it that I may have been gifted in July?

[Hairypiglet]

Actually it is common. Not every fuck flu happens within days or weeks. Mine was about a month after exposure and lasted weeks, almost two whole months, and in that time my fucktarded family doctor ran every test on me multiple times, including HIV and everything was negative. I didn't know this at the time or I would have requested a viral load test, but standard HIV testing is only an antibody test. While someone is seroconverting they won't have the antibody because that is what your body is struggling to figure out. A viral load test is the only way to know until the antibody is created. And the antibody being created typically ends your fuck flu.

So you can ask a doctor to run a viral load test. Some insurances won't cover it without a positive antibody test. Or just wait it out and test again.

I'm open to chat if you need.

 

 

Edited September 15, 2022 by viking8x6
corrected misstatement ("antigen" to "antibody")

[BootmanLA]

To @Hairypiglet's comment above, I would add: it's definitely possible - not sure I would say "common", but certainly possible - that what you're experiencing is seroconversion. But that's just a "Maybe it is" opinion. As you note, only a test can tell for sure.

You say you were "misinformed" about HIV, but you don't explain what the misinformation was, or what you learned that is actually correct that contradicts what you used to understand. Your handle on here is also "PozDesire" - which suggests that, at some level, you're chasing HIV, not just being matter-of-fact about it or careless about it.

Assuming this test is negative, I suggest you give some serious thought to this question: Do I WANT to become HIV+? If you do, then keep going as you're going, and it may happen. It may not - new infection rates have been going down for years, thanks to better treatments and to PrEP - but the possibility will continue to exist.

If you do not "WANT" to become HIV+, but you were just "resigned" to knowing it COULD happen because you like bareback sex too much to give it up, then you have the option of PrEP. If you have health insurance, even in Alabama, PrEP is covered as an essential preventative health benefit at no cost to the insured, and if you get on it, you can have all the benefits of barebacking without the risk of HIV.

I get that some people talk themselves into a "reason" to become poz. Some believe in a mythical "poz" community that ties you to a multitude of other poz men who've come before you, like a fraternity initiation. That's bullshit, except in a fevered imagination, but if that's what floats your boat, more power to you. I just point out to such people that when you develop health complications from being poz - and you will - the poz "community" isn't likely to pay your medical bills, your insurance deductible, or your other bills if you can't work for a while. At best, the "poz community" is a resource for "how do I handle X?" - like this website - but mostly "X" is something "not good" that you have to deal with as a poz person. And the sole mental "benefit" anyone has ever cited to me - the freedom to no longer worry about getting infected, because it already happened - can be achieved with PrEP.

The somewhat more credible reason - a poz man converting his partner deliberately as a way of "sealing" their lives together - at least has some psychological basis. I'm on the fence as to whether this is a good thing or not, but it's at least a credible reason, because it requires some forethought and it's a commitment consciously made.

It's hard to tell from your post whether or not this July "event" was with someone special, but I'm guessing not, and thus the second reason I cited is off the table.