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Eastern Europe - STD
Hi Doctor,
I visited an Eastern European country recently and incredibly foolishly spent time with a commercial sex worker.
The encounter: It was brief and involved 20-30 seconds of protected oral, then perhaps 2-4 minutes of protected vaginal sex then a prompt exit cursing myself with disgust.
My concerns:
- Through my frantic searching through government reports and statistics online Ive found that the country in question has a high rate of STDs amongst commercial sex workers (43% was the figure I saw) as well as a high rate of HIV.
- The worker herself looked ill. She was stumbling, looked as though she was either high on drugs or permanently damaged by them somehow, and very thin. Im worried she had HIV.
- She provided the condom. Im worried that the condom was somehow inadequate, contaminated or not up to Western standards as I didnt see the packet or see it being unwrapped.
- I had a small cut/red mark on the shaft of my penis the next day that lasted for a few days.
- Ive been ill a week later, with headache and flu like symptoms (coincidental Im sure you will say and not ARS).
- In my panic after the act I ran to the bathroom about an hour later and showered, as well as "disinfected" my genitals with two bottles of vodka - not sure of the implications / help this may have had.
All very sordid and Im sure you've heard it all before, but Ive been incredibly depressed and worried about it and have seriously considered suicide if I find Ive infected myself with HIV although reading your posts reassuring people that HIV is very hard to catch has brought me around from that dark state of mind! Im still worried that Ive caught something though, whether thats HIV or something else.
Getting tested soon.
I visited an Eastern European country recently and incredibly foolishly spent time with a commercial sex worker.
The encounter: It was brief and involved 20-30 seconds of protected oral, then perhaps 2-4 minutes of protected vaginal sex then a prompt exit cursing myself with disgust.
My concerns:
- Through my frantic searching through government reports and statistics online Ive found that the country in question has a high rate of STDs amongst commercial sex workers (43% was the figure I saw) as well as a high rate of HIV.
- The worker herself looked ill. She was stumbling, looked as though she was either high on drugs or permanently damaged by them somehow, and very thin. Im worried she had HIV.
- She provided the condom. Im worried that the condom was somehow inadequate, contaminated or not up to Western standards as I didnt see the packet or see it being unwrapped.
- I had a small cut/red mark on the shaft of my penis the next day that lasted for a few days.
- Ive been ill a week later, with headache and flu like symptoms (coincidental Im sure you will say and not ARS).
- In my panic after the act I ran to the bathroom about an hour later and showered, as well as "disinfected" my genitals with two bottles of vodka - not sure of the implications / help this may have had.
All very sordid and Im sure you've heard it all before, but Ive been incredibly depressed and worried about it and have seriously considered suicide if I find Ive infected myself with HIV although reading your posts reassuring people that HIV is very hard to catch has brought me around from that dark state of mind! Im still worried that Ive caught something though, whether thats HIV or something else.
Getting tested soon.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
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Please delete my question, thankyou.
Thanks for the reassurance, no matter how many cases on here that I read where someone else asked a similar question - I still didn't feel completely reassured until now that I've had a direct response to my specific question.
Im going to get a full screening over the next day or so for my own reassurance, then get another in a few weeks.
The suicidal thoughts have gone - mostly due to reading through previous answers on this forum.
Im going to get a full screening over the next day or so for my own reassurance, then get another in a few weeks.
The suicidal thoughts have gone - mostly due to reading through previous answers on this forum.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to the forum and thanks for your question.
Stopping to write an initial reply based only on the opening sentence of your question, before reading anything else: since you had condom protected sex, including condom for oral sex, you can be quite certain you caught no STD and that something other than STD explains any and all symptoms you may have.
Now I have read the rest. The news remains good. Whether or not your commercial partner "looked ill", and regardless of what infections she may have had, condoms work. You were protected. As long as a condom remains intact, i.e. does not break wide open, protection is complete. The notion of microscopic pores or other leaks that can allow easy transmission of bacteria and viruses is an urban myth. Having a red mark or "cut" on the penis does not significantly increase your risk. Finally, you are correct in predicting my response to the symptoms you describe. They started too soon to be due to ARS from the exposure described, and those symptoms are not suggestive of any STD. If you caught anything from the sexual exposure, it was a common cold or something similar.
So you really should not be worried about anything serious from the sexual event described. HIV testing might be a good idea in a few weeks, but purely for the reassurance expected from the negative result, not because there really is any significant risk.
As these comments imply, there is no rational basis for suicidal thoughts. If your those thoughts are serious, or if they persist, please IMMEDIATELY get care for it; you could start with a mental health hot line in your community. But whenever a user expresses such concern, we won't risk your reliance on this forum as a substitute for such care, so I'm afraid there will be no opportunity for ongoing discussion. Feel free to return with a single follow-up comment after you have had an HIV test, but no further discussion until then.
Good luck-- HHH, MD
Stopping to write an initial reply based only on the opening sentence of your question, before reading anything else: since you had condom protected sex, including condom for oral sex, you can be quite certain you caught no STD and that something other than STD explains any and all symptoms you may have.
Now I have read the rest. The news remains good. Whether or not your commercial partner "looked ill", and regardless of what infections she may have had, condoms work. You were protected. As long as a condom remains intact, i.e. does not break wide open, protection is complete. The notion of microscopic pores or other leaks that can allow easy transmission of bacteria and viruses is an urban myth. Having a red mark or "cut" on the penis does not significantly increase your risk. Finally, you are correct in predicting my response to the symptoms you describe. They started too soon to be due to ARS from the exposure described, and those symptoms are not suggestive of any STD. If you caught anything from the sexual exposure, it was a common cold or something similar.
So you really should not be worried about anything serious from the sexual event described. HIV testing might be a good idea in a few weeks, but purely for the reassurance expected from the negative result, not because there really is any significant risk.
As these comments imply, there is no rational basis for suicidal thoughts. If your those thoughts are serious, or if they persist, please IMMEDIATELY get care for it; you could start with a mental health hot line in your community. But whenever a user expresses such concern, we won't risk your reliance on this forum as a substitute for such care, so I'm afraid there will be no opportunity for ongoing discussion. Feel free to return with a single follow-up comment after you have had an HIV test, but no further discussion until then.
Good luck-- HHH, MD
You are reading content posted in the STDs Forum
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Millions of people are diagnosed with STDs in the U.S. each year.
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
