The initial signs of HIV vary in both males and females. Most of the time, the males will experience fever and mild to moderate periodic headaches. These kinds of headaches do not differ much from the headaches we normally experience in our daily lives. A man may start to observe some inflammation or swelling in a number of lymph glands in his body. A gland in his groin, neck or armpit will begin to swell and become firm and raised. This swelling does not normally bring any type of discomfort or pain to the gland and could be mistaken with other types of conditions.

HIV symptoms in men can also display dramatic changes in their stamina or energy level. They may experience unexplainable fatigue or tiredness. Physical exercise can have a different effect on them and could be mistaken as a result of stress from work.

Historically, more men are infected with HIV than women yet more women today are accounted for the new HIV cases and may catch up or even surpass the men in the near future. AIDS is just a few cases behind heart disease and cancer as the main killer conditions of women. The hardest hit of the infection are the African-American women. Women of the younger generation are the ones more prone to the infection as compared to their older counterparts. It usually takes years before HIV symptoms in women would start manifesting.

The infected females usually encounter persistent vaginal infections, in which include yeast infections. Abnormal pap smears and pelvic inflammatory disease are also common HIV symptoms in women. It could also include ulcers or genital warts.

Infected women may also start to feel some abnormalities in their menstrual cycles. It can start from a series of missed periods and could develop to having no periods in the long run. A couple of weeks after infection most women will start to experience flu-like symptoms that involves sore throat, body aches, fever and fatigue. These symptoms are a result of the body struggling to fight off the virus that attacks the cells. They may also start to lose weight rapidly due to frequent diarrhea and loss of appetite.

Once you begin noticing these symptoms, the wise thing to do is to immediately contact a medical professional and ask to be tested. Getting tested for HIV can be a scary thing to do, yet do not worry that much cause a lot of HIV testing clinics offer fast, reliable and highly confidential tests. Getting tested is crucial not only for ones health but for others as well who are going to be susceptible of getting infected without you knowing it.

HIV Symptoms in Men and Women – their symptoms greatly vary, so one should be aware of it. Learn more about the disease now and have yourself protected.

First of all, HIV isn’t AIDS, but rather AIDS is a stage in the HIV infection. An HIV infection progresses through three main stages: acute infection, chronic infection, and then AIDS. While HIV symptoms tend to be vague, especially in the first two stages, a few key conditions are night sweats, severe weight loss and swollen lymph nodes.

There is no guarantee that a person who has been diagnosed with HIV, and is showing the classic HIV symptoms, will ever develop AIDS. In persons who do progress, the first AIDS symptoms typically become evident within 10 to 15 years of first contracting the disease. In a small percentage of individuals, the onset of all AIDS symptoms can be as short as 3 years after infection. Sadly, the initial stages of HIV often exhibit no symptoms so by the time a patient shows all AIDS symptoms, their immune system has already been compromised.

AIDS symptoms’ is itself a misleading term as there is no one set of signs that can be used to make an accurate diagnosis without a blood test. That being said, there are some conditions that may point to a possible case of AIDS. They are similar to those of a stage 1 or stage 2 HIV infection but tend to be more acute. All AIDS symptoms include fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, a fever lasting more than 10 days, unexplained weight loss, purplish spots on the skin, shortness of breath, severe or chronic diarrhea, yeast infections in the mouth or vagina, easy bruising or unexplained bleeding and the most well known of all AIDS symptoms, night sweats.

It is clear that all AIDS symptoms are debilitating, but some can be explained by other conditions, such as food poisoning or even heart disease. Therefore, there is generally no reason to worry if you’re just running a fever or you’ve been tired for the past few days. However, if you’re exhibiting three or more of these symptoms, much less all AIDS symptoms or HIV symptoms, and you haven’t been tested, you need to get yourself to a doctor. Even if you have none of the conditions listed and you know that you may have possibly been exposed, get tested. It’s the only smart thing to have done.