I was diagnosed with trichomonaisis & have swollen lymph nodes, hiv related?

Posted , 3 users are following.

Unprotected vaginal sex: April 11 (37 days ago)

HIV 4th gen lab blood test: (16 days post exposure=negative)

Lymph nodes swollen throughout the body (confirmed by 2 doctors) 2 weeks post exposure. The lymph nodes in my groin are the size of golf balls and have remained consistent in size for three weeks. Lymph nodes in my elbows, neck and armpits are also severely swollen.

Doctor prescribed azithromycin to reduce swelling and clear out possible infection.

After a 1 week antibiotic regimine, nodes have not gone down in size

HIV Alere determine rapid finger prick test (24 days post exposure = negative)

Pelvic exam at 24 days post indicated trichomonaisis and yeast infection took 2000mg metronidazole and 150mg fluconazole for that.

30 days post exposure= severe oral thrush, nodes continue to swell

35 days post exposure negative rapid Alere determine finger prick test

36 days post I had a blood draw for another fourth gen lab test and am awaiting results.

My question is since I had trichomonaisis (which I did not have before this encounter) how much does that increase my risk of having transmitted HIV?

Also could this be causing the swollen lymph nodes throughout my body?

I am not exaggerating these symptoms, they've been confirmed by doctors.

Can anyone provide any insight or answers to any of this? Also I have read that the Alere determine test is not reliable before 6 weeks due to several missed acute hiv infections in studies. Is this true? If so when is this considered conclusive?

Thank you

0 likes, 6 replies

6 Replies

  • Posted

    Most, but not all, HIV infections will be detected after three weeks, especially if there are symptoms, but I think you have to wait three months for a a definite negative.

    Do you know or suspect the person you had sex with was HIV+ though?  Is it possible to ask them?

    • Posted

      Thanks for your reply. I asked and he keeps saying he was clean and was tested a few weeks before our encounter. I have asked how many sexual partners he has had and when the last time he had sex was and he keeps saying he can't remember, making this all the more troublesome

    • Posted

      Also do you know anything about the Alere Determine rapid finger prick tests?
    • Posted

      If he won't say how many sexual partner's he's had, then he probably has something to hide.  That doesn't mean he's HIV+ though, especially if he's claiming to have been tested recently.  Could you just ask him to get tested again and go with him?

      I don't know much about Alere except that it gives both false negatives and false positives.  A negative result is still good news though.  How long do you have to wait for the blood draw test to come back?

    • Posted

      I have to wait until Tuesday for results. I have not eaten or slept in a full week though, so the sooner I can find out, the better. Thanks
    • Posted

      Based on what you've said so far, it seems unlikely that you have HIV.  Other things can cause those symptoms, you've already had one test come back negative, it's actually quite hard to get HIV from vaginal sex, and we don't know if your partner is HIV+.

      Being HIV+ simply isn't as bad these days as most people think anyway.  ART (anti-retroviral therapy) keeps getting better, and most HIV+ people live normal lives.  More people die with HIV, than from HIV.  Dr Max Pemberton was in the news in 2014 for saying that he'd rather have HIV than diabetes, but you wouldn't be nearly as worried about having HIV.

      If you google "rather hiv than diabetes", you'll find Dr Pemberton's article in the Spectator.  I've pasted part of it in here::

      It’s now 30 years since HIV was discovered. During my training as a doctor in central London in the late 1990s, people were still dying of Aids. But since then, incredible pharmacological advances have been made in how the virus is treated and managed. Combination medications — termed ‘highly active antiretroviral therapy’ or Haart — have resulted in being able to maintain the infected person’s immune system and therefore prevent the opportunistic infections that resulted in the development of Aids and led to death. Despite working in the centre of London with high-risk groups such as sex workers and drug addicts, I haven’t seen someone die of HIV for years. It’s now incredibly rare to die as a result of HIV/Aids in this country. The most recent statistics show that in 2012, less than 1 per cent of people with HIV died. This is about the same for the non-infected population. It’s hard, now, to argue that HIV is a death sentence.

      Obviously I hope your next test comes back negative too, but it's not worth losing sleep over.  Good luck.

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