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Home / Answered Questions / Sorry for posting again, i still had some confusions regarding my symptoms so couldn’t find a better place. Had an unprotected vaginal exposure with sex worker on April 2013. Had tested 4 times throughout the year via Eclia fourth generation for HIV1,2 combo and found negative 4 times. And here are my symptoms after 10 days to post exposure with sex worker i had developed stomach pain and after 18 months diagnosed as Gastritis. and have sore throat, sinus, ear infection which is there for 13 months and now cheek, side burns and head sides heaviness/numbness or irritation for 4 months and had persistent diarrhea for 15 months. my CBC lymphocytes are going up. Doctor says body is fighting with some sort of infection. Does these all symptoms relate to HIV? I am much concerned about my cheek numbness/tightness of right side, right sideburn and right head side. its so irritating. i feel heaviness or tightness all the time.

Sorry for posting again, i still had some confusions regarding my symptoms so couldn’t find a better place.Had an unprotected vaginal exposure with sex worker on April 2013. Had tested 4 times throughout the year via Eclia fourth generation for HIV1,2 combo and found negative 4 times.And here are my symptoms after 10 days to post exposure with sex worker i had developed stomach pain and after 18 months diagnosed as Gastritis. and have sore throat, sinus, ear infection which is there for 13 months and now cheek, side burns and head sides heaviness/numbness or irritation for 4 months and had persistent diarrhea for 15 months.my CBC lymphocytes are going up. Doctor says body is fighting with some sort of infection.Does these all symptoms relate to HIV?I am much concerned about my cheek numbness/tightness of right side, right sideburn and right head side. its so irritating. i feel heaviness or tightness all the time.

Hi

It sounds like you are very worried about the symptoms you are having.

There are no symptoms that are caused by just having HIV. The symptoms people get with a HIV illness are common symptoms that can be caused by many different conditions.

The only way you can find out if you have HIV is to go for a HIV test. In BC Canada the HIV test we use has a window period of 3 months. The window period is the time between when a person comes in contact with HIV and when HIV will show up on a test. Even though our HIV test has a window period of 3 months we find that it is 95% accurate by 6 weeks.

If you are still concerned about HIV I would recommend speaking with the health professional that ordered the HIV test. They would be able to look at your symptoms, past medical history, test results etc… With this information they would be able to recommend what further medical care is needed. 

There are also other STI (sexually transmitted infections) that can be passed with unprotected vaginal sex. If concerned about this I would just speak with the health professional you see to make sure your testing has covered other STI as well.

Please leave a comment to let us know if this answers your question or if you need more information.

Health Nurse

For other readers, please feel free to leave a comment, or let us know if this was helpful.

This answer was posted on January 11, 2015.