Braving An HIV Test

(WebMD)  "Gee, I must really care for you, because I've never considered doing this before. Not even for myself."

Justin rolled up the sleeve of his grey sport shirt and braced for the needle as Becky looked on. As their friendship grew, Justin had opened up about his turbulent past, including drug use and promiscuity. And as the relationship turned romantic, Becky issued an ultimatum: No sex without an HIV test.

They were tested together. And they returned together for the results, trembling as the lab technician handed them plain white envelopes. They opened them in a stairwell outside the clinic. When Justin saw the results — negative for both of them — he dropped to one knee and proposed to Becky, right then and there.

"He was dead serious," Becky says. "He felt the gods were smiling on him. It was like a reprieve from his past sins."

Two years later, there are still no wedding vows. But Becky and Justin live together happily in the mountains above Asheville, N.C. The test results are pinned to a billboard in their home, a reminder of an experience that galvanized their relationship.

"It really solidified a friendship," Becky says. "And it made us realize the emotional support we could give each other."

"Justin" and "Becky" asked for their real names to be withheld to protect their privacy.

One of out of three people infected with HIV in the United States doesn't know it, according to the CDC. Many of them are unknowingly spreading the disease to people they love.

If you're sexually active and haven't been tested, there are two things you should know:

HIV is no longer a death sentence. Thanks to new medications, many people with HIV can live their natural lifespan without developing AIDS.

At many places you can get tested anonymously, so that nobody — not your parents, siblings, friends, or teachers — will find out about the test. Thanks to new tests, you won't even have to suffer a needle jab.

This article will help you prepare for your test. It will tell you when and where to get tested, what a test is like, and what to expect when you get the results.

When To Test

"Basically, anyone who has had more than one sex partner should be tested," says John Flaherty, M.D., director of the HIV Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. "If you're having new partners from one year to the next, you should be tested on a routine basis, even if you're using safer-sex techniques."

Too many people come to Flaherty's clinic sick only after their HIV infection has developed into full-blown AIDS — in other words, too late to treat. They could have survived into old age if they had only been tested and treated earlier.

Some people believe there's no point in getting tested because HIV is fatal, says Chris Hubbard, of the Whitman-Walker HIV clinic in Washington. They're not aware that medication makes living with HIV manageable.

Others fear they won't be able to afford treatment if they test positive, Hubbard says. But even the poorest patients can get affordable medication through programs such as Medicaid, he says.

Many younger people don't get tested because they feel healthy. But it often takes several years until people with the HIV virus develop the first signs of AIDS, says Amneris Luque, M.D., director of the HIV clinic at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y.

There is one important exception, Luque says. In about half of all cases, Luque says, a person will get an acute infection within a few days of contracting the HIV virus. The tragedy is that doctors may confuse this infection with flu or mononucleosis. The real cause may not be known for years.

If you come down with flu-like symptoms soon after a risky sexual encounter — such as unprotected sex — or a drug-related episode such as needle sharing, that's a good time to get tested, Luque says.

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