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Thread: HIV Test

  1. #1

    HIV Test

    I just wanted to post on this site as I didn't realise I suffered with health anxiety until I came across this website after frantically googling for information on HIV. This website is brilliant, and it really helped to reassure me when I was awake at 0300 every night panicking that I had contracted the illness.

    I am 33 and currently 16 weeks pregnant with my first baby - and I had my routine antenatal screening bloods. I have not had many partners (14), but some of these during my time at university were not as careful as I should have been. I have been with my husband for 6 years and both of us would consider ourselves fit and well. We have both had routine bloods taken in the past 2 years and these were completely normal. We have never taken drugs, had blood transfusions but we have both 'had pasts' as some would say.

    I have never felt the need to take an HIV test and have often declined when offered as I didn't want my life insurance premiums to go up or to have to declare it on the mortgage. I suppose the overwhelming urge to protect my baby was a huge deciding factor and I agreed to have the test. The hospital I am with run a no news is good news policy. It was really vague that the 'results would take around 7 days and we will only contact you if there is a problem'.

    I was absolutely fine for the first day and then the panic set in. I am not joking when I say that it literally took over my life. In the space of 24 hours I convinced myself I had contracted the disease and that I was going to kill my baby and my husband was going to leave me. The stress was intolerable - I dread to think what it did to the baby. I was sick with the stress (not morning sickness), couldn't eat, couldn't sleep and cried the entire time. My husband was away working and at sea so I couldn't talk to him, and when I tried to talk to a friend, she thought I was mental. I googled everything from regional, national and international statistics; helplines, stories of people with HIV and those without. I made the whole situation much greater than it was. I spent the first 7 days praying for my phone not to ring and it was only after 2 weeks of not hearing anything that I started to relax. One week later, I got the results through the post and they were normal and negative.

    My advice to others who are of similar dispositions is:
    -DO NOT GOOGLE

    -Speak to your midwife and let them know you are anxious and they should be able to reassure you - I didn't do this - I was too 'stiff upper lip' and I wish I had

    -After working out the statistics (and I did) there is a really low chance and risk of contracting HIV - it is not an easy thing to catch

    -I was told by the Obstetric Consultant that they would contact you asap (within a week) if there was something wrong

    -When I got my results, they had been processed 2 days after the bloods were taken, and so they would have let me know way before the 7 day window

    -Try not to worry and try not to convince yourself you are sick - it is easy to think you have symptoms when you don't.

    -Try to keep yourself busy. I called on a couple of close friends for coffee and spent the afternoon chatting about everything and nothing! Anything rather than GOOGLE!!

    Good luck to everyone out there waiting for tests and results. I never thought I could suffer with Health Anxiety but it can creep up on you when you least expect it! Try to relax, stay busy and keep positive.

  2. #2

    Re: HIV Test

    aahh how can we not take...

  3. #3

    Unhappy Re: HIV Test

    Hi , I had unprotected sex in march so in may after 7 weeks I got tested for all stds including hiv which come back negative then two weeks later I got tested for them all again which all came back negative last week 20 July I repeated these tests and all came bk negative but my hiv came back indeterminant I'm beside myself they tell you at the clinic DO NOT READ WHATS ON THE INTERNET , so I go and read it and since I found out these results I'm getting 3 hours of sleep a night if I'm lucky , my anxiety levels are crazy and I cannot stop crying , my partner who also tested negative for hiv in may just keeps telling me to stop being silly but I can't help it I am heartbroken , I would give anything to take back what I did and I would never ever have unprotected sex ever again , I have three kids one of them has special needs and I struggle as it is if I have hiv I will not be able to give him the care he needs I am so frightened that my kids will watch me die and they won't have anyone to take care of them I really regret having unprotected sex it is the biggest mistake of my life . I am not coping well with this i am crying constantly I really do not know what to do

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Posts
    391

    Re: HIV Test

    Christina, what have the hospital told you to do? if nothing, go back.

    HIV has a 12 week incubation period, so no test is of use during this time.

    It is hard to catch and they can now treat it so as to lead you a normal life.

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