So now that I let out my other secret, I wanted to say that the only way I got through the experience was to keep learning: Two years ago, I helped a friend get HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), but I never imagined that it would be relevant to my own life. I had even begun my thesis research on the matter for my master’s degree that autumn because of her.
If there is one thing that I hate that my assailant took from me, it was my original thesis (Behavioral Attributes of Health Care Workers Associated With the Recommendation of Post-Exposure Prophylaxis for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection Following Non-Occupational Events). I wanted to help other people through my research, but the topic affected me *so* personally last year, I could not see through the pain to complete my thesis requirement. Every article I read on sexual assault in the medical literature after last November, I was uncomfortable. I cried. I cried more when I changed my thesis subject.

I would think back to my physician during the initial pelvic exam. She uttered those words, “I know it hurts.”

They tell you to seek emergent medical care if you think you have been assaulted, and they tell you not to shower else you might rid yourself of criminal evidence. I showered and washed the blood from my underwear. I did not give a damn what should happen to him – my first thought was to make sure I was medically okay. For me, that meant waiting until the next day to go to the student clinic.

I remember my sister looking on as I French-braided my hair that morning, revealing the hickeys he left on my neck. I remember the scratches on my breasts and the bruises on my knees. I cannot say how I got them, but I can tell you how I moved on: I went through all the various tests for sexually transmitted infections for the first time:  Chlamydia trachomatis,  Neisseria gonorrhea, Herpes 1 & 2 simplex viruses, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, syphilis, and human papillomavirus; I also had to purchase emergency contraception for $50 because I do not trust men enough at this point to make any of them fathers. I also had to make sure I had all my tests redone after six months (I waited seven) so I could compare them to baseline.

They were all negative.

Read Part 1 here

This is a guest blog post by Nina Martinez

Nina Martinez, 26, is a public health student at Emory University in Atlanta with a focus in epidemiology. Nina’s premature birth facilitated the need for a blood transfusion that infected her with HIV when she was six weeks old in San Francisco, California.