Blood to Fluid Exposure

[sebby girl]

Doctors,

First of all, thanks to both of you for your contributions to this forum.  You provide a wonderful service to those of us with concerns.

My situation - last night (3/3) I engaged in sexual activity with an occassional male partner, (I am female).  Since we are not monogamous, we chose to play safe and avoid intercourse.  However, about 10 minutes after he ejaculated on my chest (and I cleaned up with a towel), I noticed that a large skin tag had been pulled off my chest and was bleeding profusely.  After checking my towel, I noticed it streaked with blood, so the skin tag was pulled off while I was cleaning up the ejaculate.  So I am very concerned, since the fluid had direct contact with my blood.  I was last tested in April 07 (negative) and he was last tested in Dec 07 (negative).  Does this exposure warrant any type of medical intervention or even concern?  What about other bloodborne diseases?  I will ask my partner to re-test, but in the meantime, my anxiety level is through the roof.  As an additional factor, my partner occasionally experiments with other men, but he has assured me that he is always safe.

I would just like your expert opinion on the level of risk for this event.  I have an appointment with my primary doctor for tomorrow morning, so your opinion would help to calm me until then.

Thank you in advance for your advice.

[sebby girl]

Thank you for your quick reply.  It certainly is helpful.  In speaking to my partner again this afternoon, he reassured me that as of his Dec 07 testing, he was negative for all of the "biggies" - HIV & Hep, with no at-risk behavior since then.  So I am breathing a little easier.  I will go ahead and get tested myself at the 8 week mark, just to put my own mind at ease.

And it just goes to show, no matter how "safe" we can try to be, the unpredictable can always happen.  

[Edward W Hook, MD]

The skin abrasion which accompanied your clean up has indeed possibly resulted in very direct exposure to his secretions and should be considered risky, if he is infected.  So the question which comes up is just how risky is he.  The answer is. not very.  From your post it seems that you are both taking proper precautions and have done so for a while.  In that context, as of just 10 weeks ago he was HIV negative.  Thus the question is, what are the odds that he has contracted HIV in the past 10 weeks.  My guess is that this is unlikely and therefore while this is disconcerting for you both I'm sure,

I suspect your risk is quite low because it is unlikely that he is infected.  The person who needs to be tested is your partner.  Testing for "typical STDs is probably unnecessary.  Rather the infections of interest are HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.  In my judgement and from the content and tone of your post, while testing for these is probably reasonable, the risk that he is infected is low.  Even if he is infected (remember, this is unlikely, I'm trying to cover the bases here), then your exposure is still less than a 50/50 probability.  Hope this is helpful.  EWH