Slightly concerned.....

[growing_concern]

Hi Doctor,

Great site 1st of all and very useful information.

I have already took a good look through the site and found some great information that i guess has already answered my questions to some degree but i thought just ask anyway if that's ok with you ?

I have been with a long term partner now for just over 6 years now but also ashamed to admit that i have also had protected vaginal sex with sex workers 6 times in the last 2 1/2 years. Also about two of these incidents involved some unprotected oral giving/receiving.  Also before i met my partner i did engage in a very brief act of unprotected vaginal sex two years prior to this which probably lasted no more than 5 mins max.  

The last sex worker i seen was just over 6 months ago.

I haven't had any symptoms of anything at all over the course of my 1st sexual encounter and i consider myself to have be a fit and healthy person.  Recently i caught a cold about 2 weeks ago which started with one side of my nose bleeding which went on and off for 3 days which is rare for me as i only ever usually get a cold twice a year and never with nosebleeds. I think i caught it off my Brother who i don't actually live with but he had a similar cold prior to me.  I know i have seen many times before on your site that these don't always mean a lot anyway and can be related to other things anyway but my main question is...

Recently my partner became pregnant which was unplanned and she is was on the pill.  She is about 11 weeks now but at 9 weeks she had a lot of stomach pain and spent the night in hospital and they took some blood tests and stuff, everything turned out to be ok.  What is driving me round the bend is that she has also had a blood test recently for all the usual std's etc that all pregnant women have.  

I'm worried that they might find something bad which is giving me some anixety and concern.  My partner and i as said regularly engage in unprotected vaginal sex and even some anal on a couple of occasions and have both never had an std before and certainly no major symptoms (i think) of anything although she has had a couple of water infections before in the past but that was before my encounters with sex workers anyway.

I wont be seeing any more sex workers in the future but do you think i'm being too worried and working myself up too much over this? it's just i'm worried about her test results?  Also, i'm not sure what blood tests they carried out on her in hospital when she was there overnight but would that have detected any abnormalaties do you think ?

Thanks again...

[growing_concern]

Thanks for the advice...

I guess i'll still be a bit anxious until she gets her results next week but i will hope for the best.

One slight thing i forgot to mention is that my partner does have quite a weak immune system and i'm sure i'd have noticed if something was a miss i guess anyway.

Thanks again.

[JohnnyV]

Hey,

The one STD you might consider asking her to test for is Herpes.

My wife and I just had a baby girl in May, but when she first got pregnant (by surprise, last summer -- she forgot to take a pill and the condom broke), I had a long talk about my sexual history, which was checkered and pretty serious. The OBGYN said to test for Herpes...

As it turned out, my wife had genital Herpes and I, somehow, never got it from her in 7 years of frequent unprotected intercourse (it's still a mystery). The doctor was glad to find out early, because then she could give her a certain medicine to take, to prevent her from having a Herpes outbreak during delivery.

Herpetic sores can be fatal if the baby is born vaginally while your wife has an outbreak. And herpes, as we learned, can be passed from person to person without symptoms.

I think you can broach the topic with your wife without telling her about the prostitutes. All you have to do is say that you're curious whether either of you got herpes at some point in the past.

In our case, my wife took the medication and was able to deliver the baby vaginally. The only scare I got was when the baby girl had severe acne on her face and I was scared it was herpes... turns out harmless pimples.

Best,
J

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

You had safe sex, as you seem to know, and there is no particular reason to believe you have HIV or any STD; and yes, I think you are "being too worried and working [your]self up too much over this".  If in doubt, go to your health care provider or to your local STD clinic for STD screening.

All pregnant women are routinely tested for common STDs, including chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and HIV (and sometimes herpes, but not usually); and they will examine her for trichomonas, warts, etc.  If they turn something up, she and her provider will obviously have a clue about the source, and you can expect to hear about it.  But this would be a very big surprise, based on the risks you describe.  Otherwise, no routine test done in pregnant women can find anything that would make them suspicious of an STD.

Good luck--  HHH, MD