If you have been exposed to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, you should get tested to determine whether you were infected. Many kinds of HIV tests are available, including ones that give results quickly, ones that use urine or saliva samples instead of blood, and ones in which you take a blood sample at home and send it to a lab for anonymous testing.
Step 1
Wait for your "window period" to expire. The window period is the period of time after exposure that it takes for the body to start making antibodies against HIV. Most people have a window period of two to eight weeks--according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average window period is 25 days--but some people can take as long as three to six months to produce antibodies. Because most HIV tests work by detecting antibodies against HIV, taking an HIV test before your body has had time to make antibodies will always result in a negative result, whether you have been infected or not. Wait at least two months before getting an HIV test and get another one at six months post-exposure just to be sure.
Step 2
Use a home HIV test. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a test kit (called the Home Access HIV-1 Test System) for home testing. For this type of test you will prick your finger using a lancet and blot a small amount of blood onto a piece of paper. You send this paper to the company's lab, which will test your blood for the presence of antibodies for HIV. You can obtain the results of your test by calling the company (the telephone number is listed in the packaging materials) and using your anonymous PIN.
Step 3
Get tested by your doctor or local health clinic. Your doctor or local health clinic can perform a rapid HIV test--typically using a blood sample--that can check your blood for HIV infection and give you your results in as little time as 20 minutes.
Step 4
If you have a positive result (either from a home kit or from one given by a doctor), have a more accurate confirmation test done. These confirmation tests are done by special laboratories that look for the HIV virus in a different way; it takes longer to get the results but it also is less error prone. Rapid HIV tests are designed to generate very few false negatives, or a negative result (no HIV detected) for a person who does in fact have HIV. As a result, these tests have more false positives (results indicating that a HIV-negative person has HIV). All positive results from HIV tests need to be confirmed with a second test, which will take longer but will be more accurate.
