Dear Dr. Bob,

I'm a 38 year old woman who has recently had an HIV test because of symptoms I've had during a 20 year period after having sex for the first time, when I was 18 years old. The test was negative, and it was an antibody test, and they assured me that negative is negative.

1.5 years after I had sex when I was 18, I got a white tongue, which went away after a couple days, and then constant phlegm in my throat that lasted for years and years, but now I get just saliva and post nasal drip, not phlegm, The saliva always gets stuck in my throat and I have to spit it out. I have also had many heavy night sweats, but not so many in the past couple years. I have had weird pink spots on my skin, but they were many years ago. I have also had toenail fungus that spread to all my toenails before I took medication for it and it went away. Other than those symptoms, I'm healthy except for several colds a year. A blood test a year and a half ago was normal except for low iron. The main reason I'm still worried is that my boyfriend of 14 years has similar asthma symptoms, which I think he got a couple years after he met me. We have been completely faithful.

Do I need to get the test again? Thank you so much.

Sarah

Hello Sarah,

No.

Dr. Bob