Hi Doctor,

Thank you so much for your constant replies on the forum, you are very helpful .i hope you can help me here...i am and have been paranoid for a while now...i recently had protected sex and protected oral and vaginal with a female. the condom was on at all time and im pretty sure it did not break because if it did i was told i would feel the difference....my question is she was on her period and in only knew of this because she there was a little blood on the condom at the end when i pulled out my penis. can i get hiv even if i still placed this condom on me

i also had taken a rapid tests 4 weeks since my last encounter which came back negative...i will be taking one again in another 4 weeks...but i am being told my doctors and other health care professionals that its not conclusive however 4 week negative is about 95% right ....is it true i am extremely nervous and any help would be greatly appreciated thanks

There is no risk of HI transmission with this event (assuming your partner is HIV+). Therefore, the risk of a false positive test is greater than you actually having HIV. I would not get tested any further.

To answer your question about timing of test positivity, it depends on the test. Newer antibody tests used in the US can detect almost all cases by 4 weeks and this increases to be conclusive at 12 weeks. With the combination HIV antibody and p24 antigen test, the window period is reduced considerably and a negative result at 4 weeks is conclusive.

DW