Persistent productive cough after cunnilingus

[MichaelP123]

Hello doctor,

A little more than 2 weeks ago I attended a brothel and performed cunnilingus on a commercial sex worker for a very long time, probably 20 minutes.

Since then, I developed a terrible persistent productive cough that just won't go away. The phlegm is white. I went to the doctor and I have tried a lot of medicines. 3 different cough syrups, azythromicin, anti allergics, acetylcysteine, honey, etc.

I have absolutely NO other symptom. It's just the cough.

I have now reached the point where the cough is almost gone during the day, but it is terrible every time I wake up during the mornings, spitting lots of phlegm and gagging a lot.

I'm going to visit a doctor tomorrow again, but I was wondering if this cough could be related in any way to the cunnilingus. I usually never worry about it, but this particular brothel was kind of "low class", and the cough started 1-2 days after I visited her (can't remember exactly).

Could I have gotten some kind of bacteria or virus from her? Could it be an STD?

Do you have any additional recommendations?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

You are correct. There is no evidenc ethat Staph is transmitted sexually.  EWH

[MichaelP123]

Hello doctor,

Just wanted to let you know that I sent my sputum for analysis and the culture came back positive for Staphylococcus Aureus.

It is resistant to erythromycin so I suppose that's the reason why the azythromycin did nothing.

Yesterday my doctor gave me Avelox (moxifloxacin) so hopefully this will help me recover. It's been a month already and I'm still sick.

He also gave me a lot of anti-allergic medicine, such as Nasonex, Aerius (desloratadine) and a bunch of other stuff.

So I guess it's fair to assume that what I have is not STD related?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome back to the Forum.  Performance of cunnilingus on an infected partner rarely leads to transmission of infection and even if it did, cough is not a typical sign of any STD.  Further, having been treated with azithromycin, if your cough was due to a bacterial cause (STD or otherwise,), the azithromycin should have cured it. I suspect that your persistent cough is more likely to be a coincidence  rather than directly related to your performance of cunnilingus on your partner.   The most common cause of coughs such as you report are the sorts of viruses that most people catch from time to time.

I hope this comment is helpful. EWH