I'm an idiot!

Hi,

Last Saturday night I had unprotected vaginal sex with a girl that I met at a bar (I'm a male). I know that I am very dumb to do this. We were both quite drunk. We probably had sex for close to an hour. I do not know her at all really. After we finished I asked her if she had anything and of course she said no. She may not even know if she had something even if she did. She told me that she just moved here to my town from another one that is about a 3 hour drive from mine and that she finished her first degree and the local university there last year (I think). She is living at her sisters place. I remember I asked her if she did this random drunk stuff a lot and she said no and that she recently got out of a relationship with a guy that she had been with for a while. I am 22 and she is 25.

I am beating myself up over this because last year I had protected intercourse with a female escort and I freaked myself out about that. Then I go and do this idiotic act and it is all my own fault. I don't blame her for it at all. I just don't know why I would do something so stupid. I probably should get tested but I really don't wanna go through this **** again and I feel that she probably did not ahve anything and that I should be ok. Am I at a significant risk? Oh ya and by the way she told me that originally she is from Hungary. Should I get tested?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Calm down.  Your risk is low. Here are the facts:

1.  She probably is not infected.  The description you gave is not of a particularly high risk person.  If she is not an IV drug user and if her partner did not have sex with other men, her likelihood of having HIV is far less than 1%.
2.  When she told you she had nothing she was probably telling the truth.  Most people do,
3.  Even if she was infected your risk from unprotected sex is only about 1 in 1000 acts of intercourse, again moving the odds in your favor

Putting all of this together, your risk is low.  Should you get tested - yes.  As "screening", not because you are at any huge amount of risk.  You describe unprotected sex.  we would suggest that anyone with unprotected sex with a new or multiple partners qualifies for periodic STD/HIV "screening (testing in the absence of symptoms) .  As a matter of personal protection, we recommend annual testing for anyone who has had either a new or two or more sex partners in the past year (we consider this to be health maintenance- we also recommend you get your blood pressure and cholesterol checked regularly).

Hope this helps.  Don't worry.  I predict your tests will be negative.  EWH