slightly anxious about HIV test in pregnancy

[sillyscared]

i've changed my name for this by the way.

i am pregnant and when i saw the midwife she mentioned that they now offer an HIV test to all pregnant women - although it's not mandatory. i will have the test as it's clearly better to know.

i have not been a promiscuous person and generally used protection but there were a couple of occasions when i was not as careful as i might have been. the last was over 3 years ago. i have never used any drugs or had any blood transfusions.

also i was preg 2 years ago and can't remember if i had a test then. might i have done?

i am really scared about this test and really worried in case my few occasions of not being very careful come back to haunt me with terrifying consequences. can't relax until i have the test.

I am not against the priciple of testing. It just seems like women who are pregnant are an easy and captive target. These women, if they test positive, have more than likely become positive through sex with a MAN. Therefore society, I feel, should be formally offering tests to all men in the same way that there is a national programme for cervical screening for women. After all, men are free to infect more women and make more women pregnant, and put more unborn babies at risk.
And if more people were tested and more people were diagnosed the message may begin to get through a bit more that hiv is as serious an issue as it ever was.

sillyscared- don't worry. This particular Italian was a national sterotype. I think its very common when you go for these tests for all those slightly dodgy moments to come back to haunt you.

oh and sillyscared- remember despite his appalling behaviour (frequented prostitues, NEVER used a condom, lots of anal sex- yes we did use to hear about his sex life a lot!) he was still negative. I know it all comes down to being unlucky, but you doin't sound high risk- so you would have to be extremely unlucky to have become infected.