Nervous about lymph nodes, please help!

[BuffaloBills716]

It has been 3 years since my last unprotected sexual encounter, and I am just now starting to worry myself that I have HIV. I have been thinking about it nonstop and I wake up with Diarrhea every morning, and I cannot tell if it is the stress or not. Im perfectly healthy in all other aspects: no fever, no headaches, regular metabolism, no weight loss, BUT I do have a small bump under each arm on my body, not quite in the armpit, but it is more down the side of the body, next to the breast (I am male) I noticed the one yesterday, so I started feeling the other side of my body since I am OCD and now today both sides hurt to the touch. They are about the size of a pea, but I am still concerned. Any thoughts?

[justbananas]

pea sized is not really pathological - it's pretty normal.. and they can be raised for any number of reasons. but if you've had unprotected sex at all, ever - you should get a full STD workup either way, asap. HIV would be a rare one but there are many silent std's that are fairly harmless but you don't want to be passing them around. get tested and use this bout of stress to motivate you. sexual health is the one area of health anxiety where i don't see any excuses not to be tested - it's irresponsible not to - and it's most likely you have nothing to worry about!

[justbananas]

and listen - you can get same day test results so you don't have to sit around worrying over nothing. just do it. all of this mayhem will disappear the moment you get the all-clear and you can go back to living your life!