Partner got a reactive HIV test result

[Foreverstar]

Not sure if I'm posting in the right place but not sure where else to...My partner of 3.5 years got tested for STIs last week after speaking to his GP and having had a sore penis for a couple of weeks. He got the results earlier this week just before heading abroad to visit family. The HIV test came back with a reactive result, everything else clear. He needs to get tested again and they've told him it could be a false positive. I'm obviously worried. We both did an STI test when we got together except his blood test didn't have sufficient to get results for the HIV test but all else clear. I'm as sure as I possibly can be that he hasn't cheated and know it could be a false positive and also that it can lay dormant for years but I know he has had what could be called a very relaxed approach to contraception in the past (idiot I know!)...how worried should I be? Had anyone else had this? I realise even if it is positive treatment etc has massively advanced but he's away with limited contact and I can't really discuss with anyone at present...

Book in for a test yourself immediately

Book yourself in asap

How worrying...Book a test for yourself just in case. Hopefully it is nothing and a false positive

This. At the end of the day your first concern needs to be if you are positive or not. It could be a false positive- I had one - but they're pretty rare. Although hiv can persist in the body for years without making you noticeably sick it is detectable from 3 months after infection. I'd be concerned given his non-test when you first got together.

Hopefully it is a false positive. Is he from a country with high rates of HIV?

Id hold fire and wait for his result. There is a number of false positives hence they call it a reactive result esp if rapid testing.

So frightening for both of you. This is life now isn’t it, despite testing and good intentions things can and will happen. HIV is very manageable today, not at all what the legacy would leave you to believe. Get tested yourself, don’t rely on his results, I wish you both well.

Scary stuff, get tested. Don’t wait,

Get yourself tested as soon as you possibly can.

Are you sure he told you the truth about the earlier difficulty with his test?

i think a reactive result leading to a confirmed diagnosis of hiv is reflective of the population that the person lives in…so for a person in the uk, who has never had sex with men, probability of it being due to HIV is around 28%, however a reactive result in someone in certain parts of Africa , probability would be around 97-98%. Ultimately if he is from an African community I would be more worried and I would initiate your own testing asap (sometimes false positives can occur from reactivity to other infections)

I don't get why he wasn't tested when you got together. Surely the healthcare professional took a normal sized blood sample? Or if not why didn't he go back again? Seems a bit odd.... I mean why bother to get tested and then not follow it through?

I think tests can be negative for up to 3 months after initial infection which is why GUM clinic sometimes advise to come back again for a retest. So it's not negative for years. Book yourself a test and use barrier contraception/abstain until it is clear what is going on.

I work in sexual health. Firstly, I would try not to panic, which actually it sounds like you’re doing so that’s great. Take yourself tomorrow to a walk-in appointment at the sexual health clinic. If you can’t get into the clinic and you want a quick result, you can get an HIV self test kit for home use (Insti is a trusted brand). It will give you a relatively accurate result given you have been in a relationship a long time and if you were exposed, it would likely be earlier in your relationship.

If I were you, I would do both. Self test for HIV, but also get a full sexual health screening including blood tests for HIV, syphillis and Hepatitis B/C at the clinic.

People absolutely do get false positives. They are more common than you would think. But the supposed insufficient result from before does raise my eyebrows a bit. People do get insufficient results when they collect the blood themselves at home, but it rarely happens during in clinic testing, if that’s what he did. Even if someone is positive, the chances of them passing HIV on is still not high, but you want to get this checked out so you know. Let him sort himself out, he will need further testing to check the reactive result, but you look after you right now.

Thanks everyone, obviously I don't really feel able to talk to people I know until he's back and takes the next test. It was a rapid test so hoping it is a false positive. I found the same stats that it is around a 28% chance given he's British so not from a country with a higher rate of HIV. Reading re treatment has been some comfort as it looks like it can reach the point of being non-transferable. Know I'll need to test, it was a home test we both did when we got together originally and he couldn't draw much blood which is why that one really didn't come through. I've seen all his other results, he's very transparent, like many of you have said it is simply a worrying time.

OK try not to panic.

I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
A HIV reactive test doesn't necessarily mean HIV positive.
Your partner will be offered more specific tests which will provide a definitive answer in the next few weeks. The initial test, which I tested reactive to as well, tests for an antigen that the body produces in response to HIV (and many other viruses, and also in certain autoimmune conditions).
At this stage, that's all.
Don't do what I did and read everything on the Internet, and spiral into laying wide awake at 4am, googling angry at the world and stressed up to your eyeballs.

In total 3 blood tests are needed to confirm HIV positive status as they aren't they aren't that reliable to begin with. The 1st is incredibly broad, the 2nd HIV specific (and more expensive which is why they don't do it initially) and the final test is done by Public Health England (if you're in England) which narrows down exactly what type of HIV it is (there's different groups of the virus, and some treatments work best on one and not the other).

If it helps out your mind at ease do one of those pin prick rapid results, I test negative on those but positive on the bog standard HIV test hospitals do.

OP, even if your partner does have HIV it doesn't necessarily mean you have it, and it's not a death sentence either. The treatment options these days are so good. I have a friend with it, she's had 2 healthy HIV negative kids since.

Thankfully HIV is relatively treatable at this point in the sense that if he IS positive, with medication he'll likely end up with an undetectable viral load, and low chances of transmission.

Scary time for you both though - agree with other posters to get yourself tested as a priority.

Good luck OP. I’m afraid my reaction to his blood test insufficient to get results for the HIV test is skepticism. Unlikely and he could always have taken it again.

Science and medicine has come so far it's amazing what they have achieved. It's not a death sentence and people with the virus can live normal and long lives.

I would go a full STD screen . He had symptoms of an STD (sore penis, not a symptom HIV).
As you have mentioned, HIV is not the terrifying disease it once was. Treatments are better e.g one a pill a day, with few side effects. Possible to carry an hiv -free baby etc. don’t waste your time worrying, get on with it .
You can also buy HIV tests in boots chemist. Personally I would prefer to be tested and given results and support by a professional.

sorry, < 2% are false +ve.........

https://i-base.info/guides/testing/test-accuracy-results-and-further-testing

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10911647/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2952989/

https://journals.lww.com/jaids/fulltext/2024/12010/true_and_false_positive_hiv_point_of_care_test.7.aspx

he's almost certainly positive and you need to get tested asap

we both did an STI test when we got together except his blood test didn't have sufficient to get results for the HIV test but all else clear unless you actually saw that written down from the clinic, I call bullshit. Worked in GU clinics for many years and have never seen that happen.

OP - I can see why you’re alarmed but honestly HIV infection is such a different thing now. I came of age in the mid-1980s when HIV infection had much more serious implications. Hopefully he and you will both get the all clear but, even if not, HIV infection is very manageable nowadays.

What was the reason for the sore penis?

It’s might have been one of those self tests they get everyone to do.

I couldn’t get enough blood either, so I went to an in-person test when it came back about not enough blood.

She said the first test from when they got together was at home, not at a clinic.

Hi OP, I work in sexual health

If I had a penny for every reactive HIV test I’ve repeated and sent to the lab, I wouldn’t need to work as a nurse anymore! Hopefully it will reassure you to know that I’ve not had any come back as true positives, and I have done hundreds of repeats.

Please don’t listen to the posters who are adamant that he is ‘almost certainly positive’ (I’m particularly surprised that the poster who claims to work in GUM would try to scare you like that as reactive does NOT mean false positive, it just means reactive), the home testing kits are a real fucker for reactive results. It does occasionally happen with lab bloods, but it’s less common. We have one patient whose result is reactive every single time we take it so we have to send it off to a special lab for extensive testing each time as he is high risk for a ‘real’ positive so we need to be sure.

Basically, the test works by looking for an indicator of HIV in the blood, almost like a ‘key’ that will unlock the result and show as reactive. If there’s no key, it’s a straight negative. If there’s a key that opens the door, it’s positive. Occasionally, someone will just happen to have a different key that fits in the lock, but doesn’t open the door, which is a reactive. Sometimes the key has disappeared by the time the bloods are repeated, and there is a clear negative. Sometimes the key opens the door in the repeat and it’s a positive. Sorry if that sounds horrendously patronising, it isn’t meant to be! It’s just how I usually explain it to patients in layman’s terms as most people can wrap their heads around it a bit better as it can be really overwhelming.

Please try not to worry about it until you have the repeated result. I know it’s easier said than done!