Cant sleep, eat, going mad with worry

[Going mad with worry]

Hi Dr I am hoping you are able to answer a couple fo questions for me around the transmission of HIV.

I have recently had un protected Oral Sex with another guy, he informed me he is clean however I dont know him and therefore dont know if I can trust him.
I performed oral Sex on him and he did on me, as far as Im aware my mouth is in good order however when I brush my teeth in a morning I do get a bit of blood in my toothopaste, and I had recently been suffering from a sore throat neither of us ejaculted however I am sure there was Pre-*** present, we also both masturbated each other and when he was masturnating me some of his pre-*** got on to the top of my penis.  My questions are as follows:-

1/ Can I get Hiv through the Oral sex episode if my sore throat had not totally gone?

2/ Has anyone got HIV through Oral before?

3/What was my risk also through the masturbation episode with pre-*** touching each others Penis?

I'm sorry if Im asking silly and basic questions but I am really worrying myslef sick over this.

I look forward to hearing back from you

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

You're splitting hairs.  Logically the risk would be lower by exposure only to pre-ejaculate fluid and not semen, but there are no data on this and nobody really knows.  When the risks are so low, what does it matter?  

[Going mad with worry]

Thanks You Doctor your reassuring response, one last question, you said performing oral sex on a man with ejaculation in the mouth carries 1 in 10,000 risk, when I was giving him Oral Sex he only had Pre-*** is that still the same risk he didnt not ejaculate

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

1) Performing oral sex on an infected man, with ejaculation in the mouth, carries an average risk of catching HIV of 1 in 10,000.  That is equivalent to giving a BJ once a day to infected men for 27 years, and transmission still might not occur. I don't know if having a sore throat at the time increases the risk.  But what if it doubles it?  That's still much too low to lose sleep over the event.  Anyway, your partner says he isn't infected, and most people don't lie, especially when asked when not sexuall aroused.

2) Pome people have caught HIV through oral sex.  But probably only a handful in the millions of people over 25 years of the worldwide AIDS epidemic.

3) Hand-genital contact carries no risk.  Nobody has ever been known to be infected that way.

All things considered, this was a zero risk event for all practical purposes and you don't need testing, except possibly for psychological relieve you probably will have from knowing a negative result.  If that applies to you, it's fine with me if you get tested. You can expect a negative result, assuming you are not otherwise at risk.

Finally, to put this in perspective:  If you live in the US, you have 1 chance of 1,756 of being dead of an accident within 12 months.  That's several times higher than the chance you caught HIV from this event.  

Bottom line:  Relax and stop worrying so much about this.  And don't forget your seatbelt!

HHH, MD