Blood present during oral sex

[jtscrewedup]

I am a 28 year old heterosexual male.  5 weeks ago I had mostly protected vaginal intercourse.  During sex, I notices she had a little blood in her mouth (like she cut herself) and she went to the bathroom to check it out.  She came back and said she was fine.  After that, she gave me unprotected oral (I was drunk and didn't even think about it).  It was pretty brief with no ejaculation.  Then we had protected sex, followed with less then 30 seconds of unprotected vaginal sex because I could not finish.  

Just over 2 weeks later, I had a really bad night sweat.  At three weeks, I saw my doctor, he checked my glands and said they were fine, i'm not convinced he checked that well.  He said he didn't think I needed to be tested.  I have since had a couple more very light night sweats and now, 4 1/2 weeks after the incident, I am convinced that I have found a node in my groin, but can't be sure. also, at the end of week 4, I started to experience a very light sore throat, that has persisted on and off with soreness in my armpits and neck.

I'm planning on testing at week six.  For now, what are the chances I contracted HIV if blood was present in her mouth while she gave me oral?  Also, I don't remember being feverish during that first night sweat, and am not feverish now.  During those two night sweats during the 5th week, I felt warm during the day, but my temp was below 100 with an electronic thermometer, with one reading of 100.6 with an old style thermometer.  

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Oral sex is low risk, period.  Visible blood in the mouth is not known to make any measurable difference.

Your symptoms don't suggest HIV, not really even close.  The occasional night sweat is meaningless; in fact, nobody has true night sweats unless they have pretty high fever.  (The nightsweats occur when the fever breaks during the night.)  If your doc says your lymph nodes were not enlarged, they are normal--period. Almost every human being has at least one or two slightly enlarged lymph nodes in the groin, so that finding is irrelevant.  And of course everybody gets the occasional mild sore throat.

Since you're worried, have an HIV test; most likely your anxieties about HIV will continue until a negative test result proves you don't have it.  In the meantime, from your description of both your sexual risks and your symptoms, there is virtually no chance.  Of course follow up with your doctor if your symptoms persist or you otherwise remain concerned.

Good luck--  HHH, MD

[regularjoey]

The chances are one-in-a-million, in that neighborhood.
Get tested if you're concerned, but don't lose much sleep over it.

[farfromperfect]

Not trying to hijack this thread Doctor, but their are many people in the patient to patient forum who are totally freaking out about Oral "exposures".  Can you clarify is oral sex low risk or no risk?  Thank you Doctor.  

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

I never go to the support forum, because I don't have the time or energy to get involved in (or even read) what I expect are mostly emotionally driven discussions.  But you can tell them I said that with respect to HIV (and for most STDs), oral sex is basically safe sex.  Are there exceptions?  Of course, but rare enough to be ignored.  People also get hit by lightning.  If all vaginal and anal intercourse disappeared and were replaced by oral sex as the only sexual practice, HIV/AIDS would disappear from the world as infected persons aged (and as some died).  Almost no new HIV infections would occur, except by injection drug use and similar risks.

This is my only comment on it.  I'm not going to get into any further discussion of it, directly on the support forum or any follow-up comments here.

[farfromperfect]

Thank you Doctor.  Your words carry a lot of weight and I think this will help many of those who are killing themselves with anxiety over on the support forum for no reason.  Again, thank you so much for taking the time to respond.  

[Jaguar83]

Excellent. I appreciate that too. Thanks for asking that ffp.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Regardless of ability to pay, new questions may not be posted in existing threads.  You can use the HIV Support forum.

[Michelle Wright]

I do apologise and I have taken this up with the Forum.  It's just that I can't get a direct answer and this is really scaring me to death.  Thank you for your time and I'm sorry to have worried you!

[monkeyflower]

People HAVE given you direct answers, over and over and over, but your guilt and anxiety are keeping you from hearing it, and keeping you from actually going to get tested. I really do think you need to figure out how to accept this and move on already. Therapy might be a better idea than posting the same question and getting the same responses a thousand times. That hasn't proven to be a great strategy for anyone else on these boards, either :-)

[feelinglikeanidiot]

A related discussion, scared into thinking I'm dead Oral sex was started.