fellatio risks on homosexual relation

[Undergoingpuertorican]

Doc

  Greetings! it is a plaesure to contribute to the cause because as I, a lot of people out there are not well educated on this topic.
  Recently (a week and 3 days) I had an homosexual relation where the anal exposure was protected but not the oral one; performed by the two of us (69 position). At one week of the exposure I went to the Doc and then they check up for gon, clam, and syphilis; this friday I will get the results and the doc administered an injection and for pills for prevention, I think for the gon and clam issue (I'm correct?)
  I do not know very well the guy but I didn't notice any sign of herpes or another thing in his penis (he is uncircumsized)so at this time I'm a little confident that nothing wrong will happen; but Im concerned about any risk for HIV or herpes (both oral or genital since I receive and performed fellatio). At this day I did not developed any symptoms of nothing, no headaches (one today but I think this was the pressure of one test on hispanic studies in my university), no discharges, etc..
I read once that one single exposure of this type did not have so much risk on any, even if ejaculation were present (HE DIDNT EJACULATE IN MY MOUTH)... what can you say me?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

As others have replied before me (below), the exposures you describe carried pretty low risk of STD, but not zero.  The risk of chlamydia was virtually zero (only rarely carried in the mouth/throat, rarely transmitted to the penis), but the gonorrhea risk somewhat higher--but your tests probably will be negative, and in any case, it sounds like you were adequately treated.  The risk of HIV for any single episode of oral sex is extremely low, but you can get tested if it will make you feel better to know for sure.  Did you ask your partner whether or not he has HIV?  Most guys will tell the truth if asked directly, and it would be reassuring to know he isnt' infected.

In the future, my strong advice is to NEVER have sex with another man without first knowing his HIV status and telling him yours - even if you plan to use condoms for anal sex.  Assuming you will continue to have sex with other men, plan on having an HIV test regularly, at least once a year or maybe every 6 months.  Every gay man has an obligation to know his HIV status and routinely share it before having sex.

Good luck; stay safe.   HHH, MD

[JohnnyV]

Hi,

I don't know if Spanish is your native language but I am guessing it is, so:

Dicen que hay una posibilidad de ser infectado por el acto de sexo oral, pero los casos son muy escasos. Los casos de infección por sexo oral sin orgasmo son todavía más escasos. Sin embargo, debes ir por la prueba; a 30 días después del evento, si estás negativo, es casi cierto que no estás infectado. Pero la recomendación oficial es esperar 12 semanas para recibir los resultados de la prueba como algo cierto, porque un porcentaje pequeno de personas infectadas no salen positivas hasta 12 semanas (creo que está alrededor de 1%). Hasta la prueba de 12 semanas, debes tener sexo más seguro.

Te podrá ayudar saber si el otro tenía SIDA. También si él tenía otra infección sexual, como herpes, gonorrhea, syphilis, etc., es más fácil infectar a otros con HIV.

El médico te puede aconsejar mejor; yo no soy profesional.

J

[Alias Lola]

Wow, JohnnyV, I'm impressed!!  Muy bien hecho!

[scaredstraight68]

nice johnny. can we get an english translation to what you said..

[JohnnyV]

Translation:

They say that there's a possibility of HIV infection through oral sex, but such cases are rare, and even rarer without ejaculation. Nonetheless, you should get tested. Get one at 30 days, and if it's negative, it's almost certain you don't have HIV. Official recommendations are to test again at 12 weeks because a small percentage of people infected, less than 1%, will not get turn out positive until then. Until 12 weeks, you should consider practicing safe sex.

It will help if you can find out if the other man has HIV. Also, if he has other STDs it can make it easier for him to transmit HIV to others.

The doctor can advise you better; I am not an expert.

J

[JohnnyV]

Oh by the way, as a point of explanation, most of my work deals with translation; I spend all day going back and forth among seven languages... (long story)... Anyway that's why I type so fast in all languages and why I can go back & forth so quickly.

J

[anonymous9999]

Hi JohnnyV,

I am new to this forum and been going through the questions and answers going back n forth for a while now (precisely a week). Well I wanted to post my question but cannot afford a 10 dollar as of now....so been just a silent visitor to this site. I have seen your replies in most of the questions and ofcourse I know u r not the doc but u do have enuf exposure to the stuff going on. I'd be glad if I can talk to you about my problem in anyway....? I visit this site quite often pls respond....

Thanks a lot....
Anonymous9999

[Undergoingpuertorican]

Johny... si mi lengua materna es el español pero entiendo bien el ingles, aunque al escribirlo aveces tenga algunas fallas... gracias de todas maneras por tu respuesta. Im waiting the Doc HHH to answer because I have readed in this forum one answer to some gay teen that there was a minimun risk of getting some STD in a particular fellatio experience.

[JohnnyV]

Hi,

Why don't you post your question and I will respond, and perhaps other regulars can also address it. This thread is getting filled up and I would feel bad if Undergoing got "shut out" from his own thread, so maybe you can post the question under one of the threads that don't have many comments yet. But sure, I'll read what you post to help you.

J

[anonymous9999]

Hi JohnnyV,

Thanks a lot for the speedy response....

Well I am 32 year old male and I never had any encounters with sex workers all my life until last month on august 7th I had one...I had this girl a sex worker for whole night with me and we had protected vaginal sex but unprotected oral sex 3 or 4 times....she gave oral sex...otherwise called fellatio from her...I do not know her HIV status.....On sept 5th I felt feverish (but not flu) and I freaked out and visited the doc and she gave me some antibiotics she said its respiratory tract infection coz i smoke a lot.

I have'nt disclosed my sexual encounter episode to her instead I asked her that I wanted to know my HIV status. I gave my blood sample on 7th sept (which is excactly a month after my encounter ) and on 10th I was told everything is negetive(chlymadia,hepetitis (hepatitis) b,hiv antibody/antigen, gonnerhea )....so was lil bit relaxed and my fever subsided as well and then something cameup whenever I drink iced drinks my ears were getting clogged and I was afraid of the lymph nodes swelling in my neck however I could'nt feel it but I was damn sure something was wrong so I visited the doc once again and she said maybe b'coz of the respiratory infection there's slight swelling in the necks lymph nodes... causing the ears to clog....this time I felt am dead and 100% sure that theres something wrong....I cant concentrate on anything......I dont have any other symptoms and from the contents in this forum I know that a test after 3 months in very effective.....but am scared to death......

Pls advise.....thanks a lot...
anonymous9999

[Undergoingpuertorican]

PLEASE ANONYMOUS OR OTHER PERSON WHO WANTS TO WRITE UNDER MY THREAD;
DONT DO IT UNLESS YOUR POST IS RELATED TO MY QUESTION, I HAVE PAID FOR THIS. I DONT CARE IF YOU DONT HAVE ONLY $10 FOR THIS, BECAUSE IS JUST UNPROBABLY YOU DONT HAVE IT AND IM SUSPICIOUS THAT A PERSON OF 35 YEARS OLD DO NOT HAVE THAT MONEY. IF YOU DONT KNOW IT, THE THREAD IS CLOSED AFTER SEVERAL OPINIONS, AND I WANT TO HAVE SPACE TO ASK THE DOC SOME OTHER QUESTIONS IF REQUIRED.

THANKS

[edc]

Johnny ive read that the official recommendation is 12 weeks so that  84 days to be exact. i tested at 80 days short of 4 days do i need still to be tested?

[goodguyCA]

Hi,
Sorry to post here -

My issue is that I received oral sex 11 weeks ago.
I tested at 5 and 6 weeks after the incident - negative.
I tested at 8 and a half weeks after the incident - preliminary positive.
The western blot came back indeterminate with only p24 present and the rest either absent or indeterminate.
What should I do?
Should I get an elisa done at 13 weeks? Or should I repeat the WB in a month?
Is this common?
I did have a non-bleeding cut on my penis at the time and I was wondering if semen might have gotten into contact with it.
I know they say the risk is theoretical only, but has this ever happened? Anyone heard of this?

[Undergoingpuertorican]

Doc... I have been reading and several sites indicates that folliculitis may be a sing of HIV... how true is this?

[JohnnyV]

Hi,

I'm a little confused. You got a preliminary positive test result? Did they ever do a confirmation? Was it a rapid test and if so, did you go back to find out if it was confirmed?

J

[goodguyCA]

Hey, actually here is what happened:

Tested oraquick rapid test at 5 weeks post exposure - negative
Tested oraquick at 6 weeks - negative
Tested oraquick at 8 weeks - preliminary positive. WB came back indeterminate.
Tested oraquick at 8 and a half weeks - negative.
Tested oraquick at 11 weeks - preliminary positive.
Now waiting for wb results.
I just took a PCR test. Waiting for those results too.

Everyone says I was testing too much because my exposure was low risk.
My exposure was receiving a blow job and mutual masturbation when I had a cut on my penis (it was not bleeding).
What do you think?

[JohnnyV]

Hi,

I don't know what to say. Those are bizarre test results.

Your risk was extremely low, so I am inclined to think it's the problem with OraQuick, which is known to produce false positives. If you are getting tested at the same center, with the same test counselor, it may be that the person or the center is not doing the tests right and that's why they come up with these strange results.

If the WB was indeterminate on the 8-week test, what did they tell you about the implications of it? It sounds like they gave you another test to begin the process again and it came up negative -- which is highly reassuring.

With rapid testing, negative test results are fairly conclusive; that is to say, once you account for the infection detection window, OraQuick produces false positives but not really false negatives. Therefore, if up to this point, you have still never received a positive OraQuick result confirmed by a Western Blot, but you HAVE received multiple negative OraQuick results, it looks like you're negative.

Let us know what the results of the second WB are. In the meantime, I'm rooting for you.

J

PS. About receiving a blowjob, I did find one interesting roundtable with Susan Buchbinder, Kimberly Page-Shaefer, and Jeff Klausner, the leading researchers on oral sex and HIV. You can google their names and find the page on HIVInsite. They all concurred that oral sex poses an "exceedingly rare" level of risk, but they did mention one small detail that I've been meaning to post on the forum, yet hesitant to do so (because I'm afraid it would make tons of people overly anxious). I think it was Buchbinder who noted that if there are canchres on the penis or mouth, they can have an "ulcerating" effect (I hope I said that right), which would make it possible for the virus to travel from one person to another -- but they point out that it is extremely, extremely unlikely to happen, and that still the risk to the person whose penis is being sucked is so low it's almost statistically zero. I mention it more to reassure you that, if you did not have open canchre sores on your penis or seem to get canchres shortly after from the person who sucked you off, you are safely in the zero range of risk. If you did have canchres, you might be slightly outside the zero range. So just go and follow up with your HIV test results, to be on the safe side. Still, it looks like it was a glitch with the OraQuick testing procedure.

[John8]

A related discussion, Sore throat was started.