stripper exposure?

[stripperfolly]

at a strip club 1 week ago, a stripper inserted her fingers into her vagina and then into my mouth.  she also allowed me to insert fingers into her vagina and rectum.

several days later, I briefly gave my wife oral sex.

two days ago, I had a sore throat, and became concerned I might have contracted something from the stripper, so I saw a doc.

what he said terrified me: he swabbed for gonorrhea and chlamydia, suggested I keep a look out for oral herpes or herpes on the finger, gave me antibiotics and said I should tell my wife and have her treated as well.

can you help me understand the risks here a bit?  I will tell my wife if her health is really at stake, but I am afraid it will really hurt her at a time when she is fragile ayfor other reasons).

I see on this forum that the risks appear low, but need some sense of how low before I proceed with telling my wife.

1) could I reasonably have gotten oral gonorrhea or chlamydia from this?
2) how easily can oral gonorrhea be passed from male to female (this I could find no info on anywhere)?
3) is levaquin active against oral gonorrhea?
4) are herpes of the finger or mouth real concerns?
5) is there a possible hep exposure from the finger in her bum?

thanks in advance for your help, and for the valuable service you provide.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

There probably is a theoretical possibility of catching certain STDs from that exposure, but too low to worry about.  You probably caught a respiratory virus, nothing more--maybe from the stripper, maybe from anyone else in your environment.  Your doc was being conservative in saying look out for herpes symptoms, but that's really unlikely.

1) Gonorrhea maybe, but very low risk.  Chlamydia not at all; chlamydia does not infecte the mouth and throat very much.  (CDC recommends against even testing people for oral chlamydia.)  2) Oral gonorrhea sometimes is transmitted to the urethra of men by fellatio, but there has never been a proved case of transmission to a woman by cunnilingus.  3) Levaquin generally is active against gonorrhea anywhere in the body.  4) No; see above.  5) If she happened to have hepatitis A, yes you could catch it.  But nobody is a hepatitis A carrier; that infection causes acute hepatitis only and there is no carrier state.  The odds are overwhelming she didn't happen to have hep A.  Hep B and C, no risk.

In response to your follow up question below:  Yes, once you took the first dose of levaquin, the gonorrhea test would not pick it up.

If your guilt over the event leads you to discuss things with your wife, feel free.  But from an STD or other infection standpoint, there is no need.  However, assuming your outside sexual temptations and your wife's "fragile" state might be connected, perhaps you should consider posting a question about your relationship on MedHelp's new sexuality/relationships forum.

Regards--  HHH, MD

[stripperfolly]

one other note: when I say that he swabbed, it was actually at a lab the next day - meaning I had already had some levaquin.  my concern, of course, is if I did have something that the levaquin would already have cleared it and the test would show neg even tho I was exposed and may have exposed my wife.

[stripperfolly]

thank you very much for your thoughtful reply.  I will head to the sex / relationship forum, and have also started sex counselling myself.

[stripperfolly]

a quick note for anyone else following this thread who have found themselves concerned with inapprpriate sexual behavior: therapy works.  one thing I have learned, for example, is that sexual acting out and aggression are not atypical for people on effexor (which I am), an ssri used to treat depression.  this certainly doesn't absolve me of responsibility for my actions, but gives me a better framework from which to understand why I did this, and I would not have gotten to this point without the help of my therapist.