Aa
5 year mistake
Hello Dr.
I'm a 39 year old male who has been married for 19 years. I did something dumb about 5 1/2 years ago and cheated on my wife. I have felt regret since then. This is the only time I had done something so dumb! I was stationed in korea and I met a 25 year old female Aussie english teacher. We had unprotected sex over a few days before I returned back to the US. I few days after I got back I started to really sweat around my scrodum area I would wake up and my underware would be sweaty. (I didn't see any discharge from my penis but it isn't like I was checking). No urine burning or any thing else. About a week after I was back my wife was diagnosis with UTI. My wife symptoms went away after she took a antibiotics. And the sweating around my scrodum went away after being home for about 1 1/2 weeks.
Didn't think much it until about year 1 1/2 ago. Spouse had discharge and itching around vaginal area. Diagnosos with UTI again. At that time I started with the sweeting again along with the feeling of a discharge but nothing from the penis. Spouse symptoms went away after antibiotics but my con't on and off up to now. so since then everytime my spouse complains about something around her vaginal I thing could I have given her gonorrhea or chlamydia. I have been checked for HIV (neg).
Also since then (over the last 5.5 years) both of us have been on antibiotics like levaquin, amoxicillin, and zothomax.
my questions:
If I had discharge from my penis due to an std would that be obvious? (the discharge)
Can chlamydia or gonorrhea stay in your body for 5.5 years even if you have been taking antibiotics for other stuff?
Do symptoms accure or re-accure after 4 plus years?
Should I go and get check for an std?
Could all thi be in my head because of the guilt?
Thanks
I'm a 39 year old male who has been married for 19 years. I did something dumb about 5 1/2 years ago and cheated on my wife. I have felt regret since then. This is the only time I had done something so dumb! I was stationed in korea and I met a 25 year old female Aussie english teacher. We had unprotected sex over a few days before I returned back to the US. I few days after I got back I started to really sweat around my scrodum area I would wake up and my underware would be sweaty. (I didn't see any discharge from my penis but it isn't like I was checking). No urine burning or any thing else. About a week after I was back my wife was diagnosis with UTI. My wife symptoms went away after she took a antibiotics. And the sweating around my scrodum went away after being home for about 1 1/2 weeks.
Didn't think much it until about year 1 1/2 ago. Spouse had discharge and itching around vaginal area. Diagnosos with UTI again. At that time I started with the sweeting again along with the feeling of a discharge but nothing from the penis. Spouse symptoms went away after antibiotics but my con't on and off up to now. so since then everytime my spouse complains about something around her vaginal I thing could I have given her gonorrhea or chlamydia. I have been checked for HIV (neg).
Also since then (over the last 5.5 years) both of us have been on antibiotics like levaquin, amoxicillin, and zothomax.
my questions:
If I had discharge from my penis due to an std would that be obvious? (the discharge)
Can chlamydia or gonorrhea stay in your body for 5.5 years even if you have been taking antibiotics for other stuff?
Do symptoms accure or re-accure after 4 plus years?
Should I go and get check for an std?
Could all thi be in my head because of the guilt?
Thanks
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
I meant to say that a psychological explanation isn't the only possibility for your symptoms. You are at an age when many men start to have urinary tract symptoms due to an enlarging prostate gland. Conceivably that could explain a sense of impending discharge, so see your primary care provider if that symptom persists or worsens, or if you start also having increased urinary frequency, urgency, or substantially slower flow of urine. But STDs don't cause such prostate problems and you need not mention your nonmaritial experience to your doctor (although you should not be untruthful if you are asked).
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to the STD forum. I'll try to help.
The only STDs that cause urethral discharge, and the majority that cause vaginal discharge, are due to bacteria -- chiefly gonorrhea and chlamydia, plus several others that cause nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) in men and sometimes cervical infection in women. None of these persists for 5 years without symptoms, especially in men -- probably they don't persist more than a year. And as your own question implies, the possibility of persistence is even lower in people who have taken antibiotics for other conditions. Further, numerous non-STD problems cause genital in women -- indeed, STDs are much less common than non-STD explanations for discharge -- and the diagnosis of UTI is pretty straightforward and unlikely to be wrong. Therefore, there is no realistic chance that your wife's genital problem (whether really a UTI or something else, such as yeast infection) reflects an STD she caught from you; it is unrelated to your nonmarital sexual adventures 5+ years ago.
As for your own symptoms, there is nothing in your description that hints at any STD. Certainly sweating isn't an STD symptom -- and a "feeling" of possible penile discharge doesn't sound significant in the absence of a visible discharge. I see no need for you to be tested for STD. Finally, whenever a person suspects his or her own symptoms have a psychological origin ("Could all this be in my head because of the guilt?"), usually that is exactly the case.
See a health care provider if you remain concerned, but don't worry about any STD as an explanation for either your symptoms or your wife's.
Best wishes-- HHH, MD
The only STDs that cause urethral discharge, and the majority that cause vaginal discharge, are due to bacteria -- chiefly gonorrhea and chlamydia, plus several others that cause nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) in men and sometimes cervical infection in women. None of these persists for 5 years without symptoms, especially in men -- probably they don't persist more than a year. And as your own question implies, the possibility of persistence is even lower in people who have taken antibiotics for other conditions. Further, numerous non-STD problems cause genital in women -- indeed, STDs are much less common than non-STD explanations for discharge -- and the diagnosis of UTI is pretty straightforward and unlikely to be wrong. Therefore, there is no realistic chance that your wife's genital problem (whether really a UTI or something else, such as yeast infection) reflects an STD she caught from you; it is unrelated to your nonmarital sexual adventures 5+ years ago.
As for your own symptoms, there is nothing in your description that hints at any STD. Certainly sweating isn't an STD symptom -- and a "feeling" of possible penile discharge doesn't sound significant in the absence of a visible discharge. I see no need for you to be tested for STD. Finally, whenever a person suspects his or her own symptoms have a psychological origin ("Could all this be in my head because of the guilt?"), usually that is exactly the case.
See a health care provider if you remain concerned, but don't worry about any STD as an explanation for either your symptoms or your wife's.
Best wishes-- HHH, MD
You are reading content posted in the STDs Forum
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Millions of people are diagnosed with STDs in the U.S. each year.
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
