"Positive or negative, I'd rather know"
"Slip-ups can happen; when they do I make sure I get tested."
"I'm not going to wait until I have symptoms."
"It's confidential, free and easy."
The truth is, HIV is most dangerous when you don’t know it’s there. If you find out you’re positive, accessing HIV treatment is both a smart move for your health and for drastically reducing the risk of passing on HIV.
If left undiagnosed and untreated, HIV causes serious damage to your immune system. The good news is, once you start treatment you’re back in control. Treatment greatly reduces HIV replication and helps strengthen your immune system.
New research shows that starting treatment as soon as possible can make it easier for HIV-positive people to get an undetectable viral load. This makes HIV much harder to pass on to sexual partners.
It comes down to basic biology and simple maths. Click to reveal the three key reasons why 80% of HIV in New Zealand is among gay and bi guys.
It’s been scientifically proven that anal sex is eighteen times riskier than vaginal sex. There are two reasons for this. First, the cells in the ass are much more susceptible to HIV than cells in the vagina. Second, both semen and rectal mucosa (the lining of the ass) carry more HIV than vaginal fluid. Combine this with the fact that gay and bi guys have much more anal sex than straight guys, and you’ve got yourself a lot more risk right there.
In a recent Auckland study, 1 in 15 gay and bi guys were found to have HIV. So, if you’re a guy hooking up with other guys, you’re more likely to meet someone who has HIV (and according to that same study, there’s a 20 percent chance that person with HIV doesn’t know it yet).
The reality is that there are less gay and bi guys than there are straight men and women. So when you’re meeting a guy for casual sex, the pool of people you have to choose from is smaller. This makes gay and bi guys much more closely connected, sexually, than the rest of the population. It also allows HIV and other STIs to spread quickly among us.
Many people will not experience any short-term symptoms of HIV infection - so symptoms or not, the more times you have unprotected anal sex, the more often you should test for HIV.
In some people, symptoms may occur from two to four weeks after HIV infection and may include flu-like symptoms that are easily confused with other infections, such as fatigue, fever, night sweats, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, headache, loss of appetite or skin rash. These symptoms usually last less than two weeks although they can last as long as 10 weeks. If you‘ve recently had unprotected anal sex and experience any of these symptoms, you should have an HIV test at your emergency room, GP or sexual health service.
If you see a doctor because you have symptoms, it’s important to explain that you feel at risk of HIV and ask to be tested, even if they don't suggest it. Don't assume you will be tested for HIV just because they took your blood. Ask to be sent a copy of the results.
There are many locations around New Zealand that provide free HIV testing, and in some locations results are available in 20 minutes.
Free HIV tests are available from many sexual health clinics and community-based services around New Zealand. Some locations offer standard HIV testing (results available in 5-7 days) and others offer rapid HIV testing (results in 20 minutes). You can find the services available near you using our service locator below.
If you're worried about confidentiality of your results, you should know that HIV testing is covered by privacy law. At some testing locations such as NZAF you don't even have to give your real name if you don't want to.