Ways to test for HIV

Three different ways to see if you have HIV

May 2007     View PDF     En español

About four to six weeks after you’ve been exposed to HIV, you will want to test for it with a standard HIV antibody test. You can get this test at anonymous HIV testing sites. You can also get it through your doctor’s office, at public health clinics, some AIDS service organizations, and through an in-home collection kit.

A standard antibody test does not look directly for HIV. Rather, it checks for antibodies—proteins your body makes in response to having HIV. If you have these antibodies, you are considered to be HIV-positive. That means you have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

If your result comes back positive, some people take a second test to confirm the result. For some, taking another test eases their doubts about the result. However, labs normally test your blood two different ways to confirm a positive result. So, when you get a positive test result, your blood or saliva has already been tested twice.

If you do not have these antibodies, you are considered HIV-negative. However, it can take up to six months after you’ve been exposed to HIV for you to develop antibodies. If you test negative, then you should screen again three months and again at six months after the exposure to confirm that you’re HIV-negative. You won’t know for certain if you are negative until you confirm it with another test after 6 months from the original exposure.

In some cases, the test result may come back indeterminate. Usually this occurs when the test is taken too early after the exposure. When this happens, you should repeat the test awhile later. Rarely, it can take several months before the test gives a definitive answer.

The standard antibody test, however, is not used for newborn babies. It is not reliable in detecting if a baby—born to an HIV-positive woman—is infected with HIV. In this case, babies are born with their mother’s antibodies, so special tests must be used to tell if a baby is infected.

Depending on where you live, you may have several screening options available to you. It’s important that you think about and choose the one that’s right for you. HIV screening will be part of your first nPEP visit. You doctor may have rapid testing available, and thus be able to get immediate results. These results can only tell you if you have HIV from a previous exposure. They cannot tell you if you’ve recently been exposed to HIV and if that has lead to an established HIV infection. The basic HIV screening options are explained below. Other options may be available to you through your doctor or site where you are getting nPEP services.

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