Unprotected Sex with a stripper

[Turbosony88]

Hi, I am a 25 year old heterosexual male.  4 days ago I went to the VIP room with a white mid 20's stripper and had unprotected vaginal sex with her for about 5 minutes.  I then pulled out and ejaculated and she then performed oral sex.  

I have never done anything like this before and I am not really sure why I did it.  My friend is actually friends with her and I told him to ask her if she's clean.  He "SAYS" that she claims she was tested 1.5 months ago before taking this job and was clean.  She claims that the strip club makes them get tested.  She said that she has only had sex with two other people since and it was with a condom.  Now, I don't know if my friend is making it up just to make me feel better or if that really is true.  I do know for a fact that he's been "talking" to her.

I have researched a lot to figure out my risks, but I have read so many different things and feel pretty lost.  Some treat my scenario as a lost cause and some treat it as nothing to worry about.  There is a local place that claims their RNA HIV test is FDA approved and conclusive in 9-11 days after exposure.  Is that to be trusted?  

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to our Forum.  I'll be pleased to comment.  Despite your friend's assurances the fact that your partner had unprotected sex with you means it would not be surprising if she did the same with others.   Nonetheless, this risk to you from this encounter is low- even among commercial sex workers, most people do not have STIs, including HIV and most single exposures do not lead to infection.  My advice to your would be as follows:
1.  I would suggest you get checked for the most common STIs, gonorrhea, chlamydia and NGU at this time.  Tests will be reliable.
2.  There is really no reason to test for herpes or syphilis- these infections are quite rare and if you acquired one of these infection (very unlikely) you would be expected to develop lesions at the site if exposure (your penis) within 14 (herpes) to 21 (syphilis) days of exposure.  
3.  HIV.  Your risk for this infection is less than 100,000.  Even among commercial sex workers infections are present in less than 1% and the risk for infection form a single vaginal exposure is less than 1 infection per 1000 exposures.  Despite the claims of those who sell them (and they are expensive) PCR testing has little meaningful advantage over a 4th generation test for HIV.  There are no good scientific data on precisely  how soon all PCR tests are conclusive but we do know that the performance is not too different from the 4th generations tests and these tests are conclusive 4 weeks after exposure.

All in all however, as I have said, your risk is low. Testing is mostly precautionary.  EWH

[Edward W Hook, MD]

HIV is a rare infection.  Your risk for HIV if your partner had HIV (which is unlikely) is less than 1 infection in 1000 exposures.  Your risk is low as i explained above.  EWH

[Turbosony88]

I see, well I am definitely planning on getting tested.  I was just confused because you said I should get tested for the most common STI's, but not to bother testing for Herpes.  I was wondering which one of those two groups would HIV fall under for my situation?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Actually, all testing is precationary.  Overall your risk for any STI from theevents you describe is low.  That however does not make testing worthless.  there are millions of people worldwide who have acquired HIV throguh heterosexual exposures.  Testing is part of preserving your sexual health.  EWH

[Turbosony88]

Thank you doctor for taking the time to respond to my concerns.  I will get right to testing for the most common STIs.  

However, you mention that testing is mostly precautionary?  You mean HIV, Herpes, and Syphilis testing would be precautionary right?

I know this is a weird question, but if you were in my shoes and this was the only time this has ever happened, would you bother testing for HIV?  According to your numbers, it seems that I would have a better chance of getting struck by lightning.  It seems like it is near impossible to transfer HIV with just heterosexual activity alone.