Vaginal Discharge/Fluid in Eye

[cecilrhodes]

Hi Doctor,

Yesterday I noticed some white-discharge/fluid on the top of my eye-lid. I stupidly rubbed it off with my finger and some of it came into contact with the corner of my left eye via the rubbing motion. It immediately began to sting and became irritated. To try and alleviate this, I wet a scrunched up ball of tissue paper and gently rubbed the the eyelid/corner of my open eye with it but this only seemed to make it worse. I did not rub vigorously or allow much water/moisture from the tissue to enter my eye as I was wearing a contact lens and did not want to have to take it out.

I'm not entirely sure how I got this onto my eye. I was at a girl's house and had been intimate [making out/fingering] and may have rubbed my eye in the process or perhaps it came directly from her. Irrespective, could you assess my hypothetical risk if this had indeed been vaginal discharge or some kind of sexual fluid. I've been reading a lot of other posts related to the 'theoretical' ocular exposure, and one of the most common mechanisms the Doctors here suggest is the blink reflex - but since I essentially, rather stupidly, managed to rub this into my eye, the blink reflex mechanism would have been redundant.

I should not, that my today the site of exposure on my eye is still rather irritated and tender.

Thanks

[Edward W Hook, MD]

No, the next day irritation is most likly a reaction to the "foreign" substance and your rubbing, not a manifestation of infection.  EWH

[cecilrhodes]

Thank you for replying so soon Dr. Hook.

So the next-day irritation is not indicative of anything?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to the Forum.  There are so many variables here which make infection unlikely that I would not be concerned about this event.  Among the considerations are:

1.  I guess you assume that your partner was HIV infected when, in fact this is most unlikely.
2.  You do not know the source of the material you found on your eye lid.
3.  The material you describe as finding on the upper part of your eyelid had been exposed to air and thus, had HIV been present, it would have died due to environmental exposure.  
4.  Both your blink reflex and the rubbing would tend to remove foreign material from the eye, as would the tears that the irritation that followed.
5.  It is reasonable to presume that in the 30+ years that this epidemic has gone on, others have rubbed their eyes following sexual contract, using fingers contaminated with genital secretions.  Despite this there are no cases in which HIV has even been suggested to be transmitted in this fashion.

Putting all of these considerations together, I think that there is no meaningful risk to you for acquiring HIV through the exposure you describe.  I would not worry and see no reason for testing.  EWH.  

[cecilrhodes]

*sorry for the terrible typo on that last line. It should read: "I should note, that today the site of exposure.."

Thanks again