HIV testing?

Question

alrighty, i'm going to kill two birds with one stone with this question(s).

alright, so i'm most likely going to be sexually active with a guy mucho soon-o. in a serious kind of way. now, i know i've never really cared about it up to this point (and i should have) but i think in a serious relationship, having just plain old good no-condom sex would be...well...fantastic. still, i'm young; well, not TOO young, but i've still got my whole life ahead of me & i'm ready for such a thing. now,

1) is it kinda overbearing of me to demand that we both get HIV tests together? i want to be totally safe, but i don't want to sound like i'm accusing him, or like i'm a crazy psycho b*tch who worries too much.

2) where can we get it done, and how much does it cost? also, how do they do HIV tests? because i'm scared of needles, but i suppose there's nothing i can do about that. heh. =]

thanks!

i understand the whole "having different partners" thing, but we are serious. like, i don't think in a million years he'd sleep around. even if he is a boy...lol

Answer 1

I love this question. You are a responsible young man.

First off-- the conversation. This is a good one to get comfortable with. "Joey Jo Jo, I really want to have sex with you, but I hate condoms.... let's get tested so we can both relax and have a really good time." He will be FINE with it. If by some fluke he isn't, then he is a dirt bag.

Secondly-- the testing is free in most places. Hell, at my clinic we PAY people to get tested! Call the local LGBT center for a listing of places. Or leave your city here, and on Monday when I am @ work, I will find out where you can go.

Thirdly-- it's usually a saliva test now. Blood testing is the differential. That means that if the saliva came back (+), you would do the blood to make sure.

Kudos to you.

Answer 2

They test for HIV using your blood, so needles are a must, but it's not terrible. You can get it done for free, just look up local testing areas online.

That's a wonderful idea to both go together, you can never be too careful, and because it can take years before any noticable symptoms arise, it's not unlikely that a young person who is infected doesn't even realize it.

It doesn't matter whether or not he would sleep around, one is all it takes, and use the condom anyways. Also, if he was infected with HPV (highly possible if he has ever had sex with a woman before, condom's don't always prevent it and well over half of sexually active women have it) he cannot be tested for it and that could lead to you having cervical cancer. I would recommend getting the immunization for HPV before you have sex with anyone

Answer 3

1) He should have no problem with getting it done. It's good for both of u to get tested together.

2) Like the person above me said u can get it done for free at a clinic. U don't have to take a blood test. They can test for HIV with a cotton swab to the mouth.

Answer 4

1) Do it. It's better to be safe than sorry.

2) You can get it done for free at your local health clinic.

Answer 5

The medical literature is full of evidence that neither AIDS nor HIV is sexually transmitted. It is only assumed that they are.

The results of the world's best scientific study that attempted to measure the efficiency of heterosexual transmission of antibodies to HIV was conducted by Nancy Padian and her colleagues (Padian NS, et al. 1997: Heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus in northern California: results from a ten-year study. Am J Epidemiol 146: 350-7).

The most striking result of the ten-year study is that Padian et al. did not observe any HIV-negative sex partners becoming
HIV-positive from years of unprotected sexual intercourse with their HIV-positive partners. I repeat?NOT ONE HIV-negative sex partner became positive during the 10- year study. Therefore, the observed transmission efficiency was ZERO.

However, to avoid reporting a zero efficiency for the sexual transmission of HIV, Padian and colleagues assumed that the
HIV-positive sex partners in their study must have become positive through sexual intercourse before entering the study. Using that assumption, they estimated that an HIV-negative woman would have to have sexual intercourse 1,000
times with HIV-positive men before becoming HIV-positive herself. Even more astounding, HIV-negative men would have to have 8000 sexual contacts before becoming HIV-positive.

Virtually identical figures have been reported by others (Gisselquist, D., et al., HIV infections in sub- Saharan Africa not explained by sexual or vertical transmission. Int J STD AIDS, 2002. 13: p. 657-666; Jacquez, J.A., et al., Role of the primary infection in epidemics of HIV infection in gay cohorts. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr, 1994. 7: p.1169-1184).

Given these figures and that the US Centers for Disease Control estimates that one million Americans have antibodies to HIV raises an enormous problem for sexually transmitted HIV. Since there are around 280 million men and women in the USA, that means that on average an HIV-negative woman would have to have random sexual intercourse 140,000 times?and a man eight times that number?in order to become HIV-positive (assuming equal distribution of HIV between the sexes).

Below are additional examples in the literature that neither AIDS nor HIV is sexually transmitted.

- None of the husbands of HIV positive women became antibody positive to HIV over a three-year period. (Lancet ii: 581 (1985), Stewart et al.}

- No transmission of HIV was observed between couples in which all of the women were HIV positive and in which at least 100 sexual contacts occurred. (JAMA 259: 3037 (1988), Padian et al.)

Answer 6

keep the condom please u dont know if he is thinking one on one and forget everybody else and hiv test are done with needles because the test your blood