Doctor, I have a few concerns regarding some symptoms that I am having.

I had oral and vaginal sex with a stripper (both with a condom on) almost 4.5 months ago. A week after the incident I started to feel a burning sensation in the groin area and went to a local health clinic and my regular doctor, where I had the full range of STD tests. Everything came back negative, but I still continued to have pain in the groin areaso I went to an urologist who said I had prostatitis. I was put on Cipro for a month and everything was fine. I had another HIV test at 45 days which tested for both HIV 1 and 2, and that was negative as well. Around the 10 week period I started to feel really bad, I had a red bump on the inside of my right cheek. It felt like there was discharge coming from it, but nothing that I could see. A day later it went away, my doctor said that I probably bit my cheek. Thats when I started to feel constant pain on the right side of my body right under lower right rib cage. The pain migrated to my upper back towards the right shoulder-blade. A week later I had severe pain starting in the right armpit then it spread to the left and this all lasted for about 5 days. During this period I went and had another STD and HIV test (week 11.5) and the results of that were negative for everything except for Syphilis, which proved to be a false positive. Its been 7 weeks now and I still feel like crap, low energy, constant pain in the right side of the stomach, back pain from upper to middle, pain in the joints, dizziness, pain that comes and goes on the insides of both cheeks, and pain in the armpits that comes and goes. I am just wondering if this sounds like ARS and do I need to have another HIV test done now? I have not had Herpes or Hepatitis tests done, would that be the next course of action ?

Hello,

Unfortunately I cannot diagnose the exact cause of your many on-again/off-again ailments. However, what I can do is assure you they are not related to HIV.

Your risk was essentially nonexistent. HIV cannot permeate intact latex. No way. No how. Your stripper sex-capade was protected. Assuming the latex condom was used properly and did not fail, I see no significant HIV risk.

Next, your symptoms are not suggestive of or worrisome for HIV disease.

Next, your repeatedly negative HIV tests out to nearly 12 weeks are definitive and conclusive.

So to add things up: nonexistent risk + "symptoms" not suggestive of HIV ARS + repeatedly negative HIV tests out to 11.5 weeks = "HIV IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM!"

What should you do next?

1. Stop worrying about HIV. Some or perhaps all of your symptoms may be related to anxiety and irrational fear of being HIV positive. You are not!

2. Stop chasing a diagnosis you could not possibly have. No further HIV testing is warranted.

3. If any of your symptoms persist, follow up with your general medical doctor for evaluation and treatment as needed. If no physical cause for your symptoms that "come and go" can be found, I recommend you consider a psychological cause and obtain a psychological evaluation for possible psychosomatic illness.

Good luck!

Dr. Bob