rim job

Hi. I'm a male and I gave a female a rim job ( "eating her butthole") about a week ago, can you please tell me how risky this behavoir is for contracting HIV, how bout HEP C? my other question is: Can a female get genital warts or genital herpes in her mouth because she performs oral sex. How like;y is that to happen. Thanks again for all your great work.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Rimming primarily risks enteric infections, those transmitted through feces:  norovirus (the most common cause of infectious diarrhea), other viruses, salmonellosis, shigella, campylobacter, hepatitis A, and other infections not generally considered sexually transmitted.  There is no significant risk of hepatitis B or C (and hep C isn't sexually transmitted at all, except in rare exceptions, e.g. through traumatic penile-anal sex).  In theory, a person could have anal herpes, whether symptomatic or without symptoms, but I have never heard of oral herpes acquired by rimming; it probably almost never occur.  The risk of HIV probalby is too low to measure; certainly there are no known cases acquired by rimming.

Yes, of course people can get oral HPV or HSV by performing oral sex on someone with genital infection.  It's uncommon for herpes, though.  It probalby occurs pretty frequently for HPV, but oral HPV infections rarely cause warts or other symptoms and clear up on their own; the infected person never knows s/he has oral HPV.  (Pretty much the same as for genital HPV, for that matter.)

In general, oral sex--that is, both oral genital and oral-anal sex--is pretty much safe sex.  Not totally safe of course, but much lower STD/HIV risk than penile-vaginal or penile-anal sex.

I hope this helps.  Best wishes--  HHH, MD