Extremely worried, what should my next step be?

[jujitsu30]

Good morning,

I am a 34 year old man who has never engaged in unsafe sex practices, EVER! Recently about ten days ago I had an unprotected casual sex encounter with a woman who's status is completely unknown to me on a drunken trip to Las Vegas, NV. She was not a sex worker, just a regular girl. Now I am completely devastated and I"m worried I may have an STD or HIV!

I am in a long term relationship with absolutely zero chance of any unsafe activities previous to this in my entire life. I took an STD/HIV test 5 days after this event and everything came up negative.

What would you say to someone in this predicament?

Also have to add that I am uncircumsized.

Please help a desperate man

thank you

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to the Forum.  I'll be pleased to comment.  You did the right thing by going and getting tested for the common STDs at this time- they are far, far more common than HIV and your negative tests now prove that you were not infected.

as far as HIV is concerned, your risk of infection from the single encounter you describe is less than 1 in ten million. This estimate comes from the fat that fewer than 1 in 10,000 American who are not HIV infected have HIV and even if she did have HIV, your risk for infection from a single unprotected encounter as an uncircumcised man is about 1 in 1000.  Putting these two figures together you get to the 1 in 10 million estimate I mentioned.  You can go on and test for HIV in the future if you wish to prove to yourself that you were not infected but I am confident that when you do, the tests will be negative.  Standard HIV antibody tests are now conclusive 8 weeks after an exposure.

Thus, your risk for HIV is tiny.  You should not worry about this.  My sense however is that now you will need to devote your energies to dealing with your guilt over this fling.  I wish you well.  EWH

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Glad we could help. Take care. EWH

[jujitsu30]

Today I got my results back from this unprotected encounter and in my panic I wrote basically the same question to the both of you and got the same answers. However, today being 9 weeks from the encounter I got my 3rd full panel std test and everything thankfully came back negative. I cannot express my gratitude and how many times I read both of your responses to keep my sanity.

It came out exactly the way you said it would and today at 9 weeks I can put this nightmare behind me.

All the best and thanks for this wonderful service you provide.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Yes, tests for the most common STIs are reliable when tested after 5days.

Time for you to relax and move forward.  EWH

[jujitsu30]

Dr. Hook, please excuse this last inquiry. Was the 5 day period from encounter to testing enough or should I go back for STD testing again?

Thank you

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Glad to help.  EWH

[jujitsu30]

Thank you Doctor.