HIV test

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Have you ever taken an HIV test? If you start a new relationship, do you take one? If you have never taken one, why not?

― cuba libre (nathalie), Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I find it really strange how some people can be so confident they don't have HIV even though they practice unsafe sex on a regular basis.

― cuba libre (nathalie), Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

being realistic, the statistical likelihood of my having HIV is infinitesmal, so on that basis I've never got round to having a HIV test.

I've also given blood once, and I think they scan yours when they do that, and they didn't come back to me saying "please don't give us any more blood".

― DV, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

exactly what DV said. Mind you, when the AIDS panic first started I convinced myself that the whole world was going to die of it, I was such a happy go lucky child.....

― chris, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, yes. Though the chances of me being HIV-positive were minimal.

― stevo, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have, I was getting random stomach pains last autumn and they tested me for everything from ectopic pregnancy through to appendicites (I can't spell with a hangover) with HIV and many other things along the way. All perfectly clean, diagnosed with stress-related indigestion. Oh the glam

― Anna, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Had a couple of tests over the years, for insurance as well as health reasons, and more for peace of mind than because I'm out risking myself and others on a daily basis, thankfully. My last couple of partners (which would cover the last two, three years of my life) were both fine themselves, so I haven't had one in all that time, but I might just go ahead and get one again for reassurance purposes.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I had been tested and it was fine, which was reassuring because I'm one of those people who thinks they have every illness they read about.

― Nicole, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have done the blood-giving thing, which I checked with a medic the other night, and he confirmed they DO let you know if there's anything wrong with your blood, including HIV. So that makes me about as safe as can be, which is nice.

But yes, I have spent probably dozens of nights lying awake and panicking about it in the past, and I imagine I shall do so again in the future. But all told, I'm glad my sexual awakening happened AFTER the disease was discovered rather than, say, the early 80s when I might have done all kinds of risky things in blissful ignorance. Are there any ILXers who were in that position?

― Mark C, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

sooo many it's not funny. each time, thankfully, negative.

― I may not dress like Jacki O, but I do fuck men, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Once every six months usually. Actually I tend to get screened for the whole ball o' twine (herpes, HIV, syphillis, etc) every six months or so. I've never been that concerned about having HIV (this is a bald-faced lie actually--there was one time were it was a really legitimate possibility, hmmmn) but I tend to be of the "you are engaging or have engaged in unsafe behavior mindset--unsafe enough that blood banks don't want your blood--better be sure whatchya got" mindset.

― Alex in SF, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I was in a faithful relationship (to the best of my knowledge) from 1978 until last Summer. I've had sex with a good few partners since those years of monogamy (depending on your standards: about ten), but it's been safe sex all the way, so I'm not worried. If I got into a new relationship that looks serious, I think I will get tested, just in case - 'safe' is a relative term, and while I always believed my wife was faithful, after her dishonesty at the end I'm a little less certain.

― Martin Skidmore, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

alex is otm on this one - when you've puta ll sorts of things in your body, and all parts of your body into things, it pays to know how yr doing.

― I may not dress like Jacki O, but I do fuck men, Sunday, 19 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I too have done the blood giving thing (though not for ages I am bad but stop sending me reminders it makes me feel even worse what with all the postage) and anyway I am v.unlikely to catch HIV.

Ages ago, there were stories of life insurance using the fact that one had had an HIV test as negative point on your risk assessment (even if one was clear - ie. if you have had a test you must be dodgy somehow). Which prob. makes sense statistically but is obv. ALL WRONG AND EVIDENCE THAT UNTRAMMELLED MARKET ECONOMICS IS NO GOOD. Anyway, I don't know if this still applies. Anyway, you just lie and say you haven't had one, I suppose.

― N., Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yes but only to go to russia. ironic seeing as they are the ones with the AIDS problem...cheeky fucks.

― ambrose, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ahem, Miss Libre, are you familiar with the concept of hyprocrisy?

If you HAVE taken a test, and you ARE positive, be sure to let me know....

― IW, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

On the subject of irresponsibility, what about women who have unprotected sex with their partner and neglect to tell them that they're not taking the pill.

That's rather irresponsible, not to mention downright deceitful wouldn't you say, Miss Libre?

― IW, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Take your dirty linen elsewhere, pleeeez.

― N., Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That's exactly what *I* said to her ;-)

― IW, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You really are just a complete loser aren't you, Mr. Truth?

― Alex in SF, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No time for losers

― N., Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

San Francisco eh? I guess you're safely out of twatting distance for the time being. Just as well really. Insulting people you know nothing about is neither big or clever.

The moral of the story is... don't go criticising the supposed shortcomings of others before taking a good look at yourself first.

― IW, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh this is all somewhat familiar.

― Sarah, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Surely the moral is don't get involved in 'discussions' with internet mentalists like yr gd self. *Sigh' I never learn.

PS I live in London if you fancy a twatting

― Andrew L, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"for the time being"

― mark s, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

sarah, i'd be careful. like me, you are in london, this puts us in 'twatting distance' from IW i believe...

― gareth, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ooh the entire hive is active

― mark s, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The thing is (as far as I can surmise) you harping on about some ex-relationship on an internet discusssion board you share with the ex-girlfriend. So he does know something about you. Still, it's not nice to pick on losers.

― N., Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mr. Truth, I think we've all seen enough of you to be able come to some rather obvious conclusions about your shortcomings, I'm sad to say.

― Alex in SF, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Thanks for the offer, Andrew.

Nathalie, if I were you I'd keep a very low profile during your forthcoming visit to the UK. Preferably subterranean.

― IW, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Right, this isn't funny anymore. If you can't see that that's nasty threatening shit, you need some serious serious fucking help. I don't give a fuck who you are or what the rights and wrongs of the relationship were, take a look at what you've just written.

― N., Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

lalala *ignoring BS*

the last time I had my annual "well woman" exam I opted for the whole ball of wax. Generally a good idea for the sexually active. (thankfully negative on all counts.)

― Ms. S., Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What Nick said. Threats and harrassment like that aren't acceptable.

― Tom, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What the fuck?

― Dan Perry, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think perhaps this problem stems from the ugly dolls with crazy hair. Maybe if regulars (former or otherwise) identified themselves properly there wouldn't be room for mistaken identites and other bullshit. (e.g., I think cuba may not not have any idea what IW is talking about.)

― Ms. S., Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

― Tom, Monday, 20 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

boy i sure am confused about this. i give up i think

― Ron, Thursday, 23 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ok, now i'm starting to understand. i can see this whole thread fine in Opera. it's not 'closed' to that browser, because of how Opera is reading the HTML??? i can't see the bottom of the thread in IE, i guess that's what y'all are talking about. fek

― Ron, Thursday, 23 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

four years pass...

Revive, minus the last quarter or so

― emilys. (emilys.), Thursday, 29 June 2006 00:17 (nineteen years ago)

Wow, who was that IW asshole?

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 29 June 2006 00:49 (nineteen years ago)

I can't believe the number of ppl in this thread who waved off HIV tests so readily. I mean, OK, freaking out for no reason is bad but keep this in mind.

Here are some fAX

# Half of all new HIV infections in the U.S. occur in young people 13-24 years of age; that’s 20,000 new HIV positive youth each year
# 1 in 4 Americans living with AIDS are undiagnosed and don't know they have it.
# African Americans represent an estimated 13% of the U.S. population, yet they are believed to represent half of new HIV infections.
# AIDS is the leading cause of death among African Americans ages 25-44.
# As yet, there is no cure for AIDS. There are treatments, but they are expensive and they can cause awful side effects and some strains of the virus are resistent to medication.

― deej.. (deej..), Thursday, 29 June 2006 03:33 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah I think it is very unfortunate that it so quickly got tagged as a "gays and junkies" disease because really, it can and will hit ANYONE who isn't careful. As can HepC, another thing people are too blase about.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 29 June 2006 04:47 (nineteen years ago)

it's ok if you're white though.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 29 June 2006 07:12 (nineteen years ago)

test

― naus (Robert T), Thursday, 29 June 2006 08:10 (nineteen years ago)

Tested, everything was fine. The test itself was easier than the surrounding circumstance (cheating ex). If you're worried about your insurance, go to a confidential and anonymous testing place.

― patita (patita), Thursday, 29 June 2006 16:52 (nineteen years ago)

would anyone ( - or + ) be so brave as to tell their testing stories? I scheduled one a couple of weeks from now and would really appreciate encouragement beyond, "eh, the statistical chances are infinitesmal" or, on the other hand, "well, if you're a slut, it's something you really SHOULD do, in the interest of public health." (Not that anyone on the thread said the latter.)

― emilys. (emilys.), Sunday, 2 July 2006 23:54 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't been tested in ages (unless I'm forgetting one of those "give blood" situations). (Actually I did have blood work done a few years ago which you'd think would have included it but you'd also think I'd remember such a thing...)

Anyway, the one time I was tested properly and specifically for HIV it was, hm, well it was the mid-90s. And I was completely freaked out by it, even though I had been relatively safe and had mostly been with partners who I knew were negative and so forth. But I was freaked out about being HIV positive well before I actually, you know, started having sex.

Anyway, it took about two weeks to get the result. The nice counsellor (this was at an anonymous testing clinic in Manhattan) asked what I expected my results to be (neg) and asked why I got the test (new bf I was excited about) and whether I was going to change my habits if it was negative (no, I was pretty safe!) and went over basic safe sex stuff (which, having taught safe sex stuff, I knew pretty well) and then revealed that I was negative after all.

It was insanely stressful, though, and I kinda marvel that I managed to do it at all. It put me off doing it again for -- well, I still haven't. I don't think I would be nearly as stressed about it now, though (because I've been extremely low-risk and because perhaps I can handle certain types of stress better) but at the same time I wouldn't do get a test unless I had a reason to (such as, new bf I was excited about, or some suspicion that I might be wrong about my status).

I don't know if that's the sort of response you were hoping for!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 3 July 2006 03:58 (nineteen years ago)

I've been tested about four or five times; I do it pretty much yearly since I first came to New York. It's a blood test. If you're sexually active or high risk in any other way, it's idiotic in my eyes not to. If you're not poz, you can be happy about that. If you are, you can start taking steps to improve your future and better prevent yourself from not harming people you care for. Pretty straightforward.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Monday, 3 July 2006 05:35 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, testing is worth it even if you don't think you're at risk. There are usually clinics that will do it free/cheap if $$$ is a concern. The only stressful thing about it was the wait for results, altho I doubted I had anything to worry about. Also my roomie who tested with me insisted I pull the car over on the interstate so he could tell me his results came back positive. This was a LIE so I recommend not enlisting pranksters as testing buddies.

Knowing for sure either way is key, I think.

― Abbott (Abbott), Monday, 3 July 2006 15:23 (nineteen years ago)

my experiences have been completely different from casuistry's -- go in, take the blood, report back in however many days, pick up result. no lectures or anything. i was reasonably nervous the first time, and always a little uncomfortable picking up results, but much less so than say, going to the dentist. but i was fairly low-risk, and was tested for work-related reasons, and that always kind of helped me look beyond it. once i asked them to do a cholesterol test while they were at it...

― pleased to mitya (mitya), Monday, 3 July 2006 15:42 (nineteen years ago)

No more waiting for results anymore--just about everywhere has switched over to the rapid test, which gives you results in 20 minutes. There's also an oral scraping version for the needle-averse. Pre-test counseling, test, results, post-test conseling, and out the door in under an hour.

― quincie (quincie), Monday, 3 July 2006 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, the place I'm going uses the OraSure, but the lady I scheduled my appointment with said they wouldn't give my results the same day.

― emilys. (emilys.), Monday, 3 July 2006 18:54 (nineteen years ago)

Well that's just laziness, bc a trained chimp could do that test. It is maybe one step more complicated than an at-home pregnancy test. And peeing on a stick and counting one stripe vs. two isn't very complicated.

― quincie (quincie), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:08 (nineteen years ago)

OK I have to rant just one more second about delaying a day with the OraSure. Plenty of research has shown that a significant proportion of people won't come back to get test results. So with anonymous testing, you risk having people not learn their status because you fail to deliver the results then and there, for which there is no excuse because the test is CHIMP-ABLE.

I work in the HIV field--can you tell?

― quincie (quincie), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:12 (nineteen years ago)

I've had 2 tests despite still never having been sexually active. One to get a visa to go to Russia, and one the very week I got there in order to extend my visa, which was extremely annoying. What happens if the test comes up positive, though? Do they flat-out deny you a visa?

― Maria (Maria), Monday, 3 July 2006 23:39 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not sure--when people call our info line we refer them to the US State Dept. site, which breaks down the HIV test/visa stuff by country. At the same time we have ppl calling to get more info about how to adopt HIV-+ Russian kids, of which there seems to be a really sad and scary number.

― quincie (quincie), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 00:01 (nineteen years ago)

I suppose technically it was a lecture the guy was giving to me, but it really didn't feel that way, and I don't -- I mean, not that it matters, I guess, but he was a good overworked underpaid counselor type and certainly the part of me that was also trained (many years ago) as an AIDS educator would have been disappointed if he let me go without assessing my scene.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 00:11 (nineteen years ago)

It can really be a downer b/c DC (where I live, and which has the highest HIV incidence rate of any US city) funded these port-o-testing vans and tons o' OraSure rapid tests, but has had really disappointing turnout for its free 1/2 hour testing in neighborhoods that are at hightest risk (poverty, drug use, prostitution, etc.).

― quincie (quincie), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 00:52 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, I was a little shocked and dismayed that I would have to wait. I wanted to ask why without coming off as, you know, bratty and demanding. It's those fucking days of waiting that are going to make me lose my mind.

BUT the place I'm going to seems like a much better alternative than the county health department, where they seriously have a poster up in one of the examining rooms that says, "If this is your second time getting tested for HIV, ask yourself, 'why?'"

― emilys. (emilys.), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 22:03 (nineteen years ago)

...I'm angry with myself for never complaining about that. There's something about the public health department, though, that makes me feel more faceless and voiceless and weird than any other place on Earth. I do respect that the people who work there have a hard- and no doubt frustrating- job, and that they are probably not justly compensated. Also I know it's not the nurses and RNs who decide to put up shitty posters. Seriously though, if someone is in there getting tested, why make him feel more uncomfortable than he already is?! There are many reasons why someone would get tested more than once, and "legitimate" or not, it's not really the county's fucking business. Granted, I don't think it's wrong to encourage people to consider their actions, but talking down to someone who's already taking a step in the right direction is just fucked.

― emilys. (emilys.), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

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