Briefly Insane

[trainwreck59]

To get to the point, there was a brief anonymous oral encounter with another man a month ago.  He performed oral for about 20 seconds and I did the same to him for even less, with no ejaculation, before I came to my senses and left.  It occurred in an upscale area and he claimed to be married too.  He had no visible sores that I noticed  on either his lips or penis.  I have had no symptoms afterwards.  About 10 days later I was put on Cipro (10 days 2x 500mg) for a bad sinus infection and then Zithromax (1x a day 500mg) for 5 days as the cipro didnt work.  I have been sickened with fear that I am going to pass something to my wife and have abstained from sex for the past month.  I have no symptoms to speak of except for the anxiety I have self inflicted upon myself.  I have read the other discussions and am most concerned with syphilis.  Please help.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

For starters, oral sex is not a very likely way to get an STD.  The oral cavity is a "hostile" environment for microorganisms and they do not live well there.  Your major risk from receipt of oral sex is for gonorrhea or nongonococal urethritis and between the cipro and the azithromycin, even in the unlikely event that you acquired such an infection, the antibiotics you took would have most likely eradicated any infection that might be present.  As for syphilis, again, it is likely that if you were exposed (and this is unlikely, syphilis is rare in the US - only about 8,000 cases of early (infectious to others) syphilis will occur among the over 330 million Americans this year) the azithromycin would have been likely to prevent it from establishing itself.  

As for giving oral sex, again, the major concern here is gonorrhea and what I said about receipt holds for giving as well.  

Bottom line - you exposure was low risk and the antibiotics you have taken make it unlikely that if even if exposed, you would be infected.  I would not worry.  EWH

[Edward W Hook, MD]

I cannot interpret a non-specific herpes test.  Statistically, it is most likely to reflect HSV-1 infection which is present in over 60% of the population despite the absence of any history of cold sores.  Alternatively, is could reflect a past HSV-2 infection.  What is not likely however is that it reflects recently acquired HSV without lesions.  My advice would be to not worry about it and move on with your life. If you wish to pursue it further, then get a specific blood test for HSV such as the HerpeSelect.  I can comment on those results when you have them.  EH

[trainwreck59]

Thanks for the reply.  After too much worry I went and had a battery of tests.  All came back negative except for a non-specific herpes test for recent exposures which I took 6 weeks after the incident.  I have never in my life had as much as a cold sore or sore anywhere.  I did have mono when I was a teenager.  Not sure what to do now.  Please advise.  I am scared of transmitting something to my wife.