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Gonorrhea question

Dear Drs.:
Thank you so very much for this great service you provide, you give many people a great sense of calm.

About 15 months ago I received fellatio from a CSW. From reading this forum I know that in all likelihood the CSW did not have an STD, and that even if she did the odds of transmission are pretty low from oral. The only two real risks are gonorrhea and syphilis. I had absolutely no symptoms (other than regret maybe), and did not think that (again based on reading this forum) that there was any real reason to get tested, so I did not.

Now, my SO has developed swollen, achy joints rather suddenly. I know that many things can cause that, but an untreated gonorrheal infection is one such cause. She is going to her doctor soon. My sense is that there is very little chance that this could be related to my receiving fellatio. Basically I would have had to have had an asymptomatic case (which I've seen you guys state as being less than a roughly 1% chance), passed it to her, have her be asymptomatic (which is less rare, but still in the 50% range), and then have her not clear it but rather develop the disseminated version of the disease (which from what I can tell happens in maybe 3% of untreated cases.)

In my view it appears to be very her current problems have anything to do with my mis-adventure, but I wanted to make sure that I was understanding the odds correctly and not just using wishful thinking. I would appreciate your thoughts.
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Avatar universal
Thank you - that is helpful.
Helpful - 0
239123 tn?1267647614
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to the forum.  Thanks for your question.

Your basic premise is mistaken: untreated gonorrhea is not a plausible cause of your partner's joint pain in this circumstance.  Disseminated gonococcal infection would usually be manifested by fever and punctate skin lesions in addition to arthritis.  And the arthritis would include overt pain, swelling, and redness of only a few (typically 1-4) joints.

In addition, gonorrhea just about always is cleared by the immune system within a few weeks or months, without antibiotics.  There is no realistic chance you are infected from an exposure 15 months ago and infected your partner.

For those reasons, you are indeed "connecting the dots" properly.  No worries about gonorrhea or any other sexually related explanation of your partner's symptoms.

I hope this has helped.  Best wishes --  HHH, MD
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