What to Do After You’ve Been Tested for HIV
The window is long, but it’s open. Here’s how I coped and took control of my health
I’m not an HIV expert, but I do know what it feels like to wait to find out whether you’re positive.
The window period is the time it takes for the body to produce HIV antibodies that can be detected by an HIV antibody test — and it can last from three weeks to as many as 12 weeks. During my lifetime, I’ve had to wait in that window a few times. There were even times I was in the window and didn’t know.
The first time I found myself there was in 2004. When we finished having sex, I asked my partner if he was HIV-positive, and he said, “Yes.” He told me there was nothing to worry about, that he was healthy. My friends told me there was no cause for alarm. If I got sick in a week — or if my lymph nodes started to swell — then I should be concerned.
I worried anyway. I worried as I waited in the window. And after I got out of it, I swore I’d never return.
I downplayed, I second-guessed, I blew things out of proportion. All those questions made me put off treatment and delay getting tested.
