Please Help Me!

[Jackie659]

I was just recently diagnosed with Trichomonas Vaginalis and I am married female. I was never unfaithful to my husband and my husband denies ever being unfaithful to me.  Is there any other way that i may have acquired this?  Some type of indirect contact?  I have been doing alot of research online about this STD and I have read that sometimes you can get this disease from a toilet seat, wet towel, wet bathing suit, etc...If it is possible to aquire this through indirect contact what are the odds?  My husband and I are both very upset!  PLEASE HELP!!!!  My marriage is at stake!

[Edward W Hook, MD]

please read my post again.  The likelihood you became infected from an inanimate object, unless you sat on an infected puddle, is low.  If you did not acquire the infection sexually, you could have had the infection for a long period of time without symptoms or it could have come from your own intestinal tract.  Obviously I cannot judge your relationship with your husband.  We do regularly see women who get trich without their partners transmitting it to them.  EWH

[Jackie659]

Thank you, Dr. Hook, I fell a little bit better.

[Jackie659]

Does this mean that there is a 50-50 chance that my husband did not infect me with this bacteria?  There have been many times where I have sat on a public toilet seat with no protection.  I will never do it again.  It is the uncertainty of this bacteria that eats at me!  Was it my husband or an indirect object?  My doctor performed the test in his office and showed me the slide.  He also performed a pap smear on me.  My marriage is at stake--I do not know how to react!

[Edward W Hook, MD]

The question you raise is a common dilemma for those of us who specialize in STDs.  Trichomonas is a common STD (one of the most common) but also regularly appears in couples who are monogamous and, interestingly enough (but not relevant to you other than as an illustration), in the elderly despite the absence of risk factors such as multiple sex partners.  The diagnosis is also sometime imprecise.  If your diagnosis was from a PAP smear, it may be incorrect.  Alternatively, the organism seems to be present without symptoms for years in some women.  Finally, while there is little good evidence that trich can be caught off of toilet seats, etc it does live in the intestinal tract of many people without symptoms.  Thus, there is a possibility that infections can arise from a person's own GI tract.

In your case, the first thing to do is for both you and your husband to get treated and to abstain from sex until you have both been treated.  As for where ti came from, I hope some of the information above is helpful.  Please feel free to provide more details if there are other questions.

I hope this helps.  EWH