General risks are not very helpful for individual circumstances for two reasons.
- If you have had any risk that is, for example, 1 in 1000, you still need to test to know your result. This remains true whether the risk was much higher (1 in 10) or much lower (1 in 20,000).
- Because a general risk of 1 in 1000 (sometimes quoted for unprotected insertive sex) is meaningless without considering other factors.
You need to know the chance that your partner is HIV positive, whether they are on treatment, if so, what is their viral load? Some things you won’t be able to test for, like genetics.
Even these few factors could change the same risk of 1 in 1000 to as high as 1 in 10 or as low as 1 in 20,000.
Category:
Do I have HIV or need to test?
