What are the symptoms of HIV in women?
Many persons who contract HIV for the first time don’t exhibit any symptoms. Within a month or two of virus exposure, some patients may experience a flu-like disease, including fever, headache, fatigue, and swollen lymph nodes. These signs often subside in a week to a month and are frequently confused with those of another viral infection.
It could take up to ten years for more serious symptoms to manifest. The virus is still active inside a person’s body and contagious even when they are asymptomatic.
Many difficulties start to develop as the immune system deteriorates. Large lymph nodes, often known as “swollen glands,” which may be enlarged for longer than three months, are frequently the initial symptoms of infection in many people. Additional signs and symptoms that can appear months to years prior to the development of AIDS include:
tiredness or a lack of energy
lose a lot of weight
regular low-grade fevers and sweats at night
recurring oral yeast infections, rashes, or dry skin that is difficult to heal
loss of short-term memory
The majority of HIV illness symptoms are identical in both men and women. Women with HIV may experience additional symptoms more frequently. They consist of vaginal yeast infections, other vaginal infections like bacterial vaginosis, common STDs like gonorrhea, Chlamydia, and trichomoniasis, human papillomavirus (HPV) infections that cause genital warts and can result in cervical cancer, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) infections of a woman’s reproductive organs, and changes to the menstrual cycle, such as not having periods.
How is HIV diagnosed?
You can determine if you have HIV by taking an antibody test from a blood sample or an oral sample (Orasure). A negative test result indicates that there were no antibodies to HIV. This typically indicates that you are not ill. However, antibodies could not be evident and you should be retested if you engaged in conduct that could spread the virus within three months of obtaining the test. A positive test result indicates the presence of HIV antibodies. This indicates that even if you don’t experience any symptoms, you are HIV-positive and can infect others. You have a permanent infection. Consider getting tested for HIV whenever you get a routine medical exam, even if you believe your risk is minimal.
Will my unborn child also have HIV if I have it and am pregnant?
Most pregnant women with HIV are able to prevent their unborn child from contracting the virus. With the right prenatal care, there is a less than 1% chance that an HIV-positive mother would transmit the infection to her unborn child. Only if the medical staff is aware that the mother is HIV positive can they offer these special treatments. Early in pregnancy is the best time to begin treatment. Breastfeeding should not be done by HIV-positive mothers, since HIV can occasionally be transmitted through it.