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Various Concerns, Please Help !!!!!
Hello, Good doctors. I'm a 38, latino male. I recently started dating a latina mid-30's. we started out using condoms but in the last week have had unprotected sex. She claimed to have been tested in may, but had a night of unprotected sex 2 to 3 weeks before we started dating with a an ex-boyfriend white male 40's school teacher. she had just left a six month relationship with another latino who gets tested regularly. My only exposure was getting oral sex from a bisexual male friend months ago. My real concern is this yesterday my daughter poked me with an unused diabetic collection strip my dad had left laying around the bedroom. She poked me quickly on my inner forearm. I didn't see any blood just a tiny prick mark. the strip doesn't have a needle but sharp edges with metal lining for inserting into the testing machine. I am testing in 3 weeks (6 1/2) weeks with the lady i'm dating. If my daughter had poked herself with the sharp edge that poked me would she be at risk??? I checked her fingers but couldn't see any obvious prick marks. I'm worried about her because when she poked me, i reacted and tried to get the strip out of her hands. These events happened almost immediately one after the other. She i get her on pep or tested ??? Thank You, Doctors
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Re-read my main reply and the follow-up comment above and concentrate on them. Do not post anything except your test result if and when you have one.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
I repeat that you were not at risk for HIV, and your September 8 test result shows you were not infected. And these additional questions reveal that you have even less understanding than I thought earlier about HIV transmission. The events you describe are risk free, even if one of the parties has HIV.
That's definitely all for this thread. Further questions/comments will be deleted without reply. We don't have time or energy for users who will not or cannot accept scientific evidence and reasoned reassurance.
That's definitely all for this thread. Further questions/comments will be deleted without reply. We don't have time or energy for users who will not or cannot accept scientific evidence and reasoned reassurance.
Hello, Doctor Handsfield. Earlier this morning at work i saw a TV commercial featuring the exact same strips that my daughter poked me with. It turns out the end she poked me with is in fact the part that is used to prick yourself to draw blood. So essentially it is a "needle" thought it seems more plastic than metal. Would the fact that it's a "needle" change anything as far as risk since the tiny amount of blood would have been passed almost immediately ? would the risk be equal to medical setting needle poke ??? i'm more than a little concerned. Second point would the unknown status of the second ex boyfriend make a difference? (the first "claimed" to be tested, unknown on the second) i know people do lie !!! thank you. thought quite honestly the concern for my child greatly outweighs my personal concern. THANK YOU (again).
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
None of these details change my opinions about these events.
The offer to tell me your test results, and those of your partner if she goes ahead with testing, still stands. However, there is no point in other discussion until then. As you probably realize, one of the hallmarks of OCD is susceptibility to come up with scenarios that imply exceptions to the rule. I urge you to do your best to ignore all such thoughts. Trust me on this: there is no information you can provide about these events, and no "yes but" or "what if" questions that will come to mind, that would alter my analysis or advice. For sure no HIV risk for your daughter, and little or no risk for you.
The offer to tell me your test results, and those of your partner if she goes ahead with testing, still stands. However, there is no point in other discussion until then. As you probably realize, one of the hallmarks of OCD is susceptibility to come up with scenarios that imply exceptions to the rule. I urge you to do your best to ignore all such thoughts. Trust me on this: there is no information you can provide about these events, and no "yes but" or "what if" questions that will come to mind, that would alter my analysis or advice. For sure no HIV risk for your daughter, and little or no risk for you.
Thank You, Dr. Handsfield for the quick and detailed response, I do suffer from OCD and GAD. So just to be totally clear (no more follow up's after this except to post results) even if there was a tiny amount of blood on the strip and my daughter pricked her finger it would be completely NO RISK ?? secondly my lady friend last had unprotected sex over 5 weeks ago after she got tested in may (with both ex boyfriends obviously at different times) several weeks before we hooked up(early august). I never have penetrative sex with men and that is the first oral i have received from a male in a decade. Would any of these details change MY exposure risks??? Thanks again.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to the forum.
In the past couple of years you have asked three questions about obviously zero risk events with respect to HIV transmission, on the HIV community forum, that reveal you are abnomrally phobic about HIV. The question about your daughter's risk is similar.
HIV is transmitted by unprotected vaginal or anal sex; maybe very rarely by oral sex; or by overt bloodstream exposure to infected blood or secretions, of the sort that occurs by blood transfusion or sharing drug injection equipment. The virus does not survive in the environment. If HIV could be transmitted by the kind of superficial skin pricks and injuries you describe here or in your other questions, it would be many times more common than it is and would not be classified as a sexually transmitted or blood-borne infection. There would be no risk to your daughter in the situation here even if you had HIV, but the chances you were infected from the exposures described are extremely low anyway.
So for sure your daughter does not need to be tested for HIV, and of course does not need PEP. (You probably couldn't find a doctor willing to prescribe it anyway.)
Your female partner doesn't have HIV, and is apparently at very low risk for it. Your bisexual male partner is more likely to be infected, but oral sex is such low risk that this is really not anything to worry about. However, as a person who obviously is sexually active outside a mutually monogamous relationship, and especially as someone who sometimes has sex with other men, you should be tested for HIV and other STDs from time to time, like once a year. So I'm glad you are being tested, but not because of your daughter's experience or the specific sexual exposures you have described. (I see no reason for your regular partner to be tested again, but if she is willing, it's fine with me.)
Feel free to let me know the test results. But in the meantime, you should not be at all worried about these events or your daughter's health. HIV is a lot harder to transmit than you apparently believe.
Regards-- HHH, MD
In the past couple of years you have asked three questions about obviously zero risk events with respect to HIV transmission, on the HIV community forum, that reveal you are abnomrally phobic about HIV. The question about your daughter's risk is similar.
HIV is transmitted by unprotected vaginal or anal sex; maybe very rarely by oral sex; or by overt bloodstream exposure to infected blood or secretions, of the sort that occurs by blood transfusion or sharing drug injection equipment. The virus does not survive in the environment. If HIV could be transmitted by the kind of superficial skin pricks and injuries you describe here or in your other questions, it would be many times more common than it is and would not be classified as a sexually transmitted or blood-borne infection. There would be no risk to your daughter in the situation here even if you had HIV, but the chances you were infected from the exposures described are extremely low anyway.
So for sure your daughter does not need to be tested for HIV, and of course does not need PEP. (You probably couldn't find a doctor willing to prescribe it anyway.)
Your female partner doesn't have HIV, and is apparently at very low risk for it. Your bisexual male partner is more likely to be infected, but oral sex is such low risk that this is really not anything to worry about. However, as a person who obviously is sexually active outside a mutually monogamous relationship, and especially as someone who sometimes has sex with other men, you should be tested for HIV and other STDs from time to time, like once a year. So I'm glad you are being tested, but not because of your daughter's experience or the specific sexual exposures you have described. (I see no reason for your regular partner to be tested again, but if she is willing, it's fine with me.)
Feel free to let me know the test results. But in the meantime, you should not be at all worried about these events or your daughter's health. HIV is a lot harder to transmit than you apparently believe.
Regards-- HHH, MD
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