Am I contagious?

[MeyesecretID]

Ok…I recently (3 weeks ago) got a BJ from a guy. I am also a guy. About two days later I started to experience discomfort while urinating and have a little discharge (whiteish, thin, and less than a drop) before I urinate. I figured I had a infection and went to the doctors. Urine analysis came back negative but the doctor gave me 10 days of Cipro just to make sure. I finished the Cipro and no real change. I have had a similar but more painful experience with this before but then I noticed a change in a couple of days last time.  I also have been on Doxycline for 5 days. Still finishing that up. I still have the slight discharge and minor discomfort. Went to my urologist, had another urine analysis and that too came up negative. I saw some of the discharge in the cup when I finished giving the sample so I guess I should believe it. My urologist said I may have an infection in a gland but he wants to wait a few weeks to see if it goes away by itself.

My question is, because the test came up negative can I be reasonably sure I will not be passing anything to my wife?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

The picture isn't clear and I'm not sure how much I can help, especially when 2 different hands-on docs (including a urologist) haven't come up with clear answers.  Your symptoms suggest urethritis, ie inflammation/infection of the urethra.  The most common cause after oral sex is nongonococcal urethritis (NGU), due to any of several possible bacteria, including the otherwise normal bacteria from a partner's mouth.  However, NGU usually takes 5-10 days to show up.  The 2 day incubation period suggests gonorrhea.  Most gonorrhea responds to cipro, although in recent years resistant strains have been increasingly common, especially in gay men.  Most gonorrhea and NGU cases would respond to doxycycline--so the apparent absence of response to that antibiotic doesn't make much sense.  By "gland" your urologist undoubtedly means the prostate, i.e. possible prostatitis (which is not sexually acquired and would have nothing to do with your oral exposure).  But infectious prostatitis usually would also respond to one or both of the antibiotics you have received.  Some cases like yours probably are due to non-infectious inflammation of the urethra or prostate, in which case it will not respond to any antibiotic.

So I cannot help with your diagnosis, because nothing fits very well with your story.  You'll have to say it is very unlikely you have anything that you can transmit to your wife, and probably nothing that will ever harm you either.

I hope this helps.  Good luck--  HHH, MD

[Aquaman]

"Prostatitis is not sexually acquired."
Is that an opinion, or a definite statement?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Definite, within the limits of current scientific evidence.

HHH, MD

[MeyesecretID]

Well the answer definiatly helped but I see there are a lot of posts similar to mine. One quick question. (and maybe others that have expereienced this can chime in) Is there an averge time line for symtoms like mine? I still have the sysmtoms and they worsen after sex and then subside over a day or so but haven't gone away completely yet. I guess all I can do at this point is wait it out. I will return to my urologist in a couple of weeks for a follow up but i hope all will be well by then. FYI this is week 4.