This is some personal advice aimed at anyone who is seriously worried about having hiv but hasn't yet found the courage to get tested.

For the past 6 months I have been fretting desperately about an unprotected heterosexual encounter with a member of a high risk group. When, 4 weeks later, I developed an illness, I panicked. It didn't help of course that I suddenly developed mouth ulcers which came back every 2 weeks or so.

Anyway, I basically convinced myself that I had caught this disease, convinced that I wasn't going to see 35 (i'm a 19 year old med student). Until last week I eventually plucked up the courage and went to see my gp who took a test which, thank god, came back negative, and now I almost feel as if I have lost 6 months of my life in the chaos of sleepless nights and inability to concentrate on anything.

Look - although you might be terrified of the possibilities of a bad result, first of all it could (and probably will, given the stats) come back negative. Even if the worst did come to the worst, anti-retrovirals can double your life-expectancy.

Please, I know you have heard it before, get tested. With the fortune of hindsight I can honestly say, even if it hadn't been the result I had been hoping for, I am glad I had the test - living in dire uncertainty is almost as bad as already being diagnosed.

Please let me know if anyone finds benefits in these words.

& good luck!!!!