Syphilis from Oral Sex with Man

[looking4helpMD]

About 5 weeks ago I had unprotected oral sex with another male.   I was the insertive partner.  It lasted less than 5 minutes. I've read many of the postings regarding STD risk to insertive participant for both hetero and homosexual activities and feel that I was fortunate not to catch Gonorrhea or NGU also since I've shown no signs of HSV1 that seems to be out of the picture.  My major anxiety at this moment is Syphilis.  I have read in the newspapers over the past few days that syphilis is in the rise primarily for men who engage in these sort of activities with other men.  I live in the Baltimore, MD area which claims to be among the more prevalent area for contracting this STD.  My partner from 5 weeks ago is promiscuous.. as I chose him from a CL ad..  For personal reasons I've elected not to get tested for syphilis at this point.. I have not seen any chancre on my penis.. although I had what looked like a pimple under my belt line 2 weeks ago which is unusual for me..It  wasn't large (less than 3mm).. and took on all the characteristics of a pimple.. raised, round, with pus etc.. other than remaining redness it cleared up a within a day of squeezing it..

My general  question(s) are, In your opinion am I overreacting to the CDC news.. I understand that there are only 70,000 new cases of P&S syphilis each year as compared to 800,000 for gonorrhea and more than 3 million new cases of Chlamydia.. the numbers bare out a mere 3 in 100,000 person rate for Syphilis population.. but I'm sure thats understated for my risk because it includes the hetero population.. with that being said.. my question is:

(1) Given my partner, area etc, How much more likely is it that I could have contracted Syphilis?

(2) Are there any studies that show the increases risk of getting syphilis among gay / bisexual men from being insertive partner only from unsafe oral sex?

(3) What is the likelyhood of getting syphilis from one episode of oral sex from another male.. healthy or unhealthy?

[shameful5]

Do yourself a faavor and get tested.   Don't delay because you are very likely to get a good case of anxiety if you don't test.  Good Luck

[shameful5]

It looks like the anxiety is starting already...Don't let everything you see on your body make you think it is an std..

[auntiejessi]

I agree with the others.  I don't know what your personal reasons for not testing are, but I think you need to test.

Since syphilis is prevalent in your area, and if it goes untreated it can have major health consequences, then I think you should test.

I can't say how high your chances of having it are - depends entirely if he had sores in his mouth at the time.  Usually we say syphilis isn't that common, but given that you are a man who had sexual contact with a male, and a lot of syphilis is being found in MSM, then I might say its a little higher risk than usual.

If you were talking about herpes, which has no real long term consequences, I could see not testing, but I can't say the same for syphilis.

AJ

[auntiejessi]

Oh and to add to that - you had casual, maybe anonymous sex with a guy from CL.  This isn't someone you could trust to tell you that he had an infection, and he's had multiple partners - all of which increase your risk of getting it.

Aj