I get flu before my periods

Dear Doctor: why is it that a few days before I get my periods, I suffer from flu? What is the explanation for this?”
Sarah

Dear Sarah: Whenever someone has a runny or stuffy nose, we tend to refer to it as flu. Flu is short for Influenza, which is a deadly viral infection and includes swine influenza virus infections. That said, flu is used as slang for a common cold, a contagious viral illness that affects the nose, throat and lungs.
A stuffy or runny nose can also be caused by an allergy.
Where one is found to have no allergy and yet gets a runny or stuffy nose apart from sneezing a term non-allergic rhinitis can be used. This stuffy nose due to unknown causes usually develops in adulthood, and should only be confirmed after conditions such as allergy or infection in the nose have been ruled out.

A runny or congested nose that happens related to menstrual periods may be linked to increases in the female hormone oestrogen levels towards periods. Women who get these flu-like symptoms during menstruation may also get them in pregnancy, at puberty, or while using oestrogen medication during hormonal replacement treatment.

Oestrogen stimulates the autonomic nervous systems parasympathetic activity (feed, rest and breed system), while reducing that sympathetic (fear, fight and flight) system, leading to a runny nose. Increase in a substance called hyaluronic acid in the nose results in nasal congestion.
Also, some medications like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen taken for period pains can lead to non-allergic rhinitis symptoms around period time. Alcoholic beverages, especially beer and wine taken by some women to lessen period pain, can also cause the nasal symptoms.

Dear Doctor: I know that I have no HIV and the antenatal tests also said so. However, my husband was tested and found with HIV. Is my baby safe?
Amoit

Dear Amoit: HIV infection is mostly transmitted through sex. Also, the mother who is infected may pass HIV infection to the baby during pregnancy, delivery or during breastfeeding. If the father is HIV positive and the mother is not, the baby is unlikely to get HIV directly from the father unless the father infects the mother first.
Knowledge of whether a woman has HIV or not when she is pregnant (through testing) helps the antenatal clinic plan properly to avoid the mother passing on the disease to the baby and also to make sure both the mother and baby are healthy.

Testing a sexual partner when the mother is pregnant, helps stop the father if he is positive from infecting the mother and the mother passing the infection to the baby.
Since your husband is HIV positive, to avoid infecting you and therefore the baby, he needs to use condoms properly and consistently. In the extreme, he may have to avoid having sex with you but this may be very difficult.

There is a common belief that HIV/Aids’ infection is selective so that if sex partners are found to be discordant (one has HIV while the other does not), they sometimes continue having live sex ending up with infection in the one who was safe. Pregnant women even when tested and found negative and their husbands positive, may more easily get infected during pregnancy, the time they are most vulnerable. And then they may eventually transmit the infection to the babies.
For now, your baby is safe but if you continue having live sex with your husband or any other sexual partner, you are likely to get the infection and pass it to your baby.

Dear Doctor: I took an HIV test , which was negative but I was advised to return for another test in three months. I had live sex with a woman who has refused to test. However, my doctor started me on these awful tablets, which I want to stop. Which test can I take so that I can stop the drugs before one month?
Ken Ndoboli

Dear Ken: Negative or positive results happen when a test for the presence of substances that one produces to fight against the HIV germ is done, with the most commonly used HIV test in Uganda being the ELISA.
Though the detection of these substances will depend on the method used, many tests will take two and eight weeks, (average is 25 days) to show positive. However, in rare cases, some people can take as long as six months to develop antibodies. Before the substances show in this window period, a person may be negative yet he has HIV and can cause infection if he/she has unprotected sex with one who has no infection.

The window period is the reason why doctors advise a second HIV test after three to six months before a couple can embark on unprotected sex. In your case however, to rule out infection, you were given HIV drugs as prevention.
Antigen tests (RNA tests), which show the presence of the virus (but not antibodies against the virus like in ELISA) are more expensive and not routinely done and so are not offered in as many places. These may show a positive result in one to three weeks after infection.
PCR tests (Polymerase chain reaction tests) also test for the actual virus. This test is often used for testing the viral load of HIV-positive people, as well as testing babies born to HIV-positive mothers. These can show in two to three weeks after infection.
Much as these tests may show the presence of the virus earlier than a month, it is still prudent to continue with your preventive drugs for the prescribed one month because the use of drugs may interfere with the presence of the virus and you end up with infection yet it could have been prevented by completing your dose.