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Am I at risk for HIV or herpes?
Hello doctor,
I'm a young male, and last night I performed unprotected oral sex with a male escort. The experience lasted only a few minutes. I noticed no bumps, blisters or cuts on his penis at all. He did not ejaculate.
After the encounter, I went to the sink to wash my mouth out, and I noticed that I kept spitting blood. I looked closely at my mouth and I had some cuts on my gums. (this is not uncommon for me, as I often had bloody gums for the past 2 years)
Am I at risk for HIV or Herpes? I'm terrified that I may have caught HIV. I spoke to the Escort on the phone this morning and he assured me that he was clean and tested, but I have trouble believing him.
thanks for your time
I'm a young male, and last night I performed unprotected oral sex with a male escort. The experience lasted only a few minutes. I noticed no bumps, blisters or cuts on his penis at all. He did not ejaculate.
After the encounter, I went to the sink to wash my mouth out, and I noticed that I kept spitting blood. I looked closely at my mouth and I had some cuts on my gums. (this is not uncommon for me, as I often had bloody gums for the past 2 years)
Am I at risk for HIV or Herpes? I'm terrified that I may have caught HIV. I spoke to the Escort on the phone this morning and he assured me that he was clean and tested, but I have trouble believing him.
thanks for your time
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to the forum.
HIV is rarely transmitted by oral sex. One analysis by CDC estimated the risk of penile to oral transmission, if the penile partner has HIV, at once for every 10,000 exposures -- which is equivalent to giving B-Js to infected men once daily for 27 years before you would expect to be infected. And even that may be an overestimate. And these data are only for known-infected partners. People rarely lie about HIV status when asked directly, so it is unlikely your partner had HIV. But even if he did, for the reasons above you really were not at significant risk. However, in the future, I suggest you have the HIV status discussion before having sex, and avoiding it with partners who are positive, haven't been tested recently, or seem evasive about it.
The risk of herpes, i.e. transmission of an oral HSV-1 infection to the genitals by oral sex, is higher than for HIV, but still occurs rarely -- as a guess, probably no more than once for every 1,000 such events, IF the oral partner has oral herpes. And there's probably a 50:50 chance you aren't even susceptible -- if you are among the half the population who have had HSV-1 and therefore are immune to a new infection.
All things considered, the risk is low enough that you do not need testing for any infection. Of course if you get blisters or sores of the penis in the next couple of weeks, get it checked out. Otherwise, you shouldn't worry at all about this event.
Happy new year-- HHH, MD
HIV is rarely transmitted by oral sex. One analysis by CDC estimated the risk of penile to oral transmission, if the penile partner has HIV, at once for every 10,000 exposures -- which is equivalent to giving B-Js to infected men once daily for 27 years before you would expect to be infected. And even that may be an overestimate. And these data are only for known-infected partners. People rarely lie about HIV status when asked directly, so it is unlikely your partner had HIV. But even if he did, for the reasons above you really were not at significant risk. However, in the future, I suggest you have the HIV status discussion before having sex, and avoiding it with partners who are positive, haven't been tested recently, or seem evasive about it.
The risk of herpes, i.e. transmission of an oral HSV-1 infection to the genitals by oral sex, is higher than for HIV, but still occurs rarely -- as a guess, probably no more than once for every 1,000 such events, IF the oral partner has oral herpes. And there's probably a 50:50 chance you aren't even susceptible -- if you are among the half the population who have had HSV-1 and therefore are immune to a new infection.
All things considered, the risk is low enough that you do not need testing for any infection. Of course if you get blisters or sores of the penis in the next couple of weeks, get it checked out. Otherwise, you shouldn't worry at all about this event.
Happy new year-- HHH, MD
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Cuts in the mouth, sore gums, etc are extremely common, so there must have been billions of oral exposures in their presence -- but still very rare HIV transmission. This does not significantly increase your risk. Don't worry about it.
Hello Doctor, Thanks very much for your response. However, I was mainly worried because I did have cuts inside my own mouth. I performed oral sex on a man while I had bleeding gums (a few drops of blood).
Would that increase my risk of contracting the HIV virus?
Would that increase my risk of contracting the HIV virus?
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.
