How Long Does It Take to Show Symptoms of HIV?

Early symptoms of HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that attacks your body’s immune system, vary by person. Many people experience flu-like symptoms within two to four weeks of being exposed to HIV. In later stages, you may experience fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, rash, and, as it progresses, problems with various systems and organs.

Symptoms of HIV in a woman can include menstrual changes, painful intercourse, and recurrent yeast infections. HIV symptoms in men may include hypogonadism and penile ulcers. Left untreated, HIV can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Early diagnosis is key to slowing down disease progression.

This article will discuss the symptoms and signs of HIV, how they may present in different people, information on getting tested, and what to do if you are diagnosed with HIV.

Early Symptoms of HIV — Illustration by Danie Drankwalter for Verywell Health

What Is Acute HIV Infection?

There are three stages of HIV infection:

Stage 1: Acute HIV infection
Stage 2: Chronic HIV infection
Stage 3: AIDS

Acute HIV infection is the first stage of the infection. Usually, within two to four weeks of infection, two-thirds of those with HIV will experience flu-like symptoms. They are the main first symptoms of HIV, lasting for several days or even weeks. However, some people may have no symptoms.

In this stage, there is a large amount of HIV in your blood, which is known as the viral load. Studies have noted incredibly high viral loads during the acute stage, meaning you are more contagious at this time.

How is HIV spread and how can I prevent infection?

In the United States, HIV is spread mainly through having anal or vaginal sex or sharing needles or syringes with an HIV-positive partner. You can prevent HIV by always using condoms correctly, and ensuring that HIV-negative partners take daily pre-exposure HIV medicine while HIV-positive partners maintain undetectable viral loads through medication.

Early Symptoms of HIV

How long it takes to show symptoms of HIV after infection will vary with each infected person, but there are some consistent patterns in how you feel when you have HIV.

Many symptoms of HIV do not show up immediately, but early symptoms can include:

Fever
Chills
Rash
Night sweats
Muscle aches
Sore throat
Fatigue
Swollen lymph nodes
Mouth ulcers or sores

Early symptoms of HIV infection are similar, regardless of race or the sex and gender with which people identify. However, some differences and unique symptoms can emerge.

Symptoms of HIV in a Woman

Women may develop some unique HIV symptoms that include:

More frequent vaginal yeast infections
A higher risk of vaginal and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) overall, including chlamydia and the human papillomavirus (HPV) infections that may lead to cervical cancer
Missed periods and other menstrual cycle changes

Symptoms of HIV in a Man

Men who have sex with men (MSM) have a much higher risk of HIV infection than other groups, and anal sex carries the highest risk regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Because HIV commonly occurs with other STI infections, symptoms to watch for include:

Urethral discharge
Pain or other changes with urination
Ulcers or a rash around the penis or anus
Rectal discharge or rectal bleeding
Pain during sex
Pain when having a bowel movement
Swollen lymph glands

Symptoms of HIV in a Child

HIV may be passed on from the parent during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding. Babies with HIV should be treated right away. Symptoms in children are similar to those in adults, and also may not emerge for several months or longer. They include swollen lymph nodes, fevers and sweats, and frequent infections.

A Note on Gender and Sex Terminology

Verywell Health acknowledges that sex and gender are related concepts, but they are not the same.

Sex refers to biology: chromosomal makeup, hormones, and anatomy. People are most often assigned male or female at birth based on their external anatomy; some people do not fit into that sex binary and are intersex.
Gender describes a person's internal sense of self as a woman, man, nonbinary person, or another gender, and the associated social and cultural ideas about the roles, behaviors, expressions, and characteristics.

Research studies sometimes don't use the terminology in this way. Terms that describe gender (“woman,” “man”) may be used when terms for sex (“female,” “male”) are more appropriate. To reflect our sources accurately, this article uses terms like "female," "male," "woman," and "man" as the sources use them.

How Long Does It Take to Show Symptoms of HIV?

Many people will have an early, flu-like illness within two to four weeks after infection, but some people can live for years without symptoms. As a result, about 13% of people living with HIV in the United States are unaware of their diagnosis.

This makes testing all the more critical. Only antigen/antibody tests or nucleic acid tests (NATs) can diagnose acute HIV infection. NATs look for actual virus in the blood, and antigen/antibody tests look for HIV antibodies and antigens. Antibodies are produced by your immune system when you’re exposed to viruses like HIV, and antigens are foreign substances that cause your immune system to activate.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends people ages 13 to 64 years be tested for HIV at least once in their life, regardless of symptoms.

See a healthcare provider if you have symptoms of HIV and think you may have been exposed to HIV. Getting tested is the only way to know for sure. The nucleic acid tests (NATs) can confirm an HIV infection in 10 to 33 days. The antigen/antibody tests do so in 18 to 45 days. No test can detect HIV immediately after infection.

Diagnosing HIV

There are three types of HIV tests available to diagnose HIV infection. Keep in mind that the time between when a person may have been exposed to HIV and when a test can tell for sure whether they have the virus is called the window period.

The window period varies from person to person and depends on the type of test used to detect HIV. If you get an HIV test after a potential HIV exposure and the result is negative, you need to get tested again after the window period. You can talk with a healthcare provider about HIV testing.

Nucleic Acid Test (NAT)

An NAT involves drawing blood from a vein. It can tell if you have HIV or how much virus is present in your blood. While an NAT can detect HIV sooner than other types of tests, this test is very expensive and not routinely used for screening individuals unless they recently had a high-risk exposure or a possible exposure and have early symptoms of HIV infection. This test takes several days for results to come back.

Antigen/Antibody Tests

An antigen/antibody test is commonly used and recommended for testing done in labs. It involves drawing blood from a vein, with results that take several days to come back. There is also a rapid antigen/antibody test available that is done with a finger prick and takes 30 minutes or less to get results.

Antibody Tests

HIV antibody tests only look for antibodies to HIV in your blood or oral fluid. In general, antibody tests that use blood from a vein can detect HIV sooner after infection than tests done with blood from a finger prick or with oral fluid.

Antibody tests can detect an HIV infection 23 to 90 days after exposure. Most rapid tests and the only HIV self-test currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration are antibody tests. They take 20 minutes or less to provide results.

Keep in mind that any positive result (known as the preliminary positive) would necessitate a second test to confirm it. The only test that would not require a second confirmatory test is the NAT.

What's Next if You're HIV-Positive

If you find out you are HIV-positive, it’s important to keep in mind the condition is treatable. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is recommended for all people with HIV, regardless of how long they’ve had the virus or how healthy they are.

ART works by lowering the amount of virus in the body to very low levels. ART medication is vital to slowing the progression of HIV infection and protecting the immune system.

Left untreated, HIV will progress to the second stage. During this stage, people may experience no symptoms at all. If no treatment is administered, an individual can stay in this stage for 10 to 15 years.

HIV Symptoms and Disease Progression

Studies vary on how long it takes for disease progression in people who have no symptoms of an acute HIV infection, in part because of differences in how progression is defined. A 2015 study from Japan reported an average of 2.9 years. The authors note results comparable to studies done in Germany and Holland, but they added that other study results show longer times and more research is needed.

Summary

Early-stage HIV infection can lead to flu-like symptoms, although some people experience no symptoms at all. There can be differences in how males and females experience symptoms.

These symptoms occur two to four weeks after infection, but it may then take years for some people to discover they are HIV positive. Most people living with HIV in the U.S. will not experience progression to AIDS, due to advancements in treatment options.

Early diagnosis, however, is vital to slowing the progression of HIV. If you are in a high-risk group, it's recommended that you test every three to six months. A number of tests are available, including at-home options.

13 Sources

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About HIV.
Wong N, Levy M, Stephenson I. Hypogonadism in the HIV-Infected Man. Curr Treat Options Infect Dis. 2017;9(1):104-116. doi: 10.1007/s40506-017-0110-3.
Kieselova K, Santiago F, Falhas C, Henrique M. Chronic penile ulcer as the first manifestation of HIV infection. BMJ Case Rep. 2017 Aug 7;2017:bcr2017221604. doi:10.1136/bcr-2017-221604.
Selik RM, Linley L. Viral loads within 6 weeks after diagnosis of HIV infection in early and later stages: observational study using national surveillance data. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2018;4(4):e10770. doi:10.2196/10770
HIV.gov. Is the risk of HIV different for different groups?
Illinois Department of Public Health. Facts About Women and HIV/AIDS.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Men Who Have Sex With Men.
Planned Parenthood. What are the Symptoms & Signs of HIV in babies.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV in the United States and dependent areas.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV testing.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV testing.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Understanding a positive result.
Watanabe D, Suzuki S, Ashida M, Shimoji Y, Hirota K, Ogawa Y, et al. Disease progression of HIV-1 infection in symptomatic and asymptomatic seroconverters in Osaka, Japan: a retrospective observational study. AIDS Res Ther 12, 19 (2015). doi:10.1186/s12981-015-0059-6

By Molly Burford
Molly Burford is a mental health advocate and wellness book author with almost 10 years of experience in digital media.

See Our Editorial Process

Meet Our Medical Expert Board

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?