Gonorrea Transmission Risk?

[Lonelyguy123]

Hello Dr.

I'll keep this short and to the point.

Exactly 3.5 months ago I received short fellatio from a woman and also performed cunnilingus on her.  I resumed having unprotected vaginal sex with my regular partner (different woman) in the absense of any symptoms.

Exactly 3 months after my oral sex episode, I tested negative for all STD including gonnorea.

Neither me nor my regular partner has any symptoms of an std.

My questions:

1)  Ive read this site enough to know that my encounter was low risk and very low in the absence of symptoms.  Is there even a theoretical risk that I contracted gonorrea or another std from my oral encounter, have it to my regular partner who carried it asymptomatically, and mine resolved itself between my encounter and testing 3 months later?  And my regular partner may still have it or get PID or some other health complication?  Is this possible but unlikely or is it impossible?

Thank you very much.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

You are quibbiling.

I think the estimate that all gonorrhea clears by 12 weeks is an estimate and nothing more.  Further, since the vast majority of gonorrhea is symptomatic, my suspicion is that the estimate (which, unless you are misquoting it, came from Dr. handsfield) reflects only the minority of gonorrhea cases which are  asymptomatic- In my considerable experience, men do not just walk around for 12 weeks with symptomatic gonorrhea without seeking care.

You asked my advice and have received it.  I will not debate what is "theoretically possible" with you.  If you wish feel free to tell your regular partner she should get checked for gonorrhea becasue you cheated on her and there is a theoretical chance that you got asymptomatic gonorrhea, and that although you have been tested with superb tests and found not to have gonorrhea, you might have cured yourself but infected her, and since then have not re-infected yourself but she could be developing PID.  

Good luck.  End of thread. EWH

[Lonelyguy123]

Thank you very much Dr.

I'll try not to be one of these paranoid posters but rather just ask one final followup question:

I believe I read here that most Gonnorhea in men clears up by 12 weeks on its own.  According to this info, it would seem my negative test 12 weeks post exposure is a bit irrelevant in determining whether I contracted gonnorea from the oral exposure.  I know that there are symptoms in 90% of men, so it is very unlikely that I had asymptomatic gonnorea but 1 in 10 is far from impossible.  Add that to the fact that majority of women with gonnorea are asymptomatic, it seems the scenario I described is very unlikely but far far greater odds than one in a million.

Is there any info I am missing that contributes to your assessment that the odds of my theoretical scenario are close to one in a million?

Thank you again Dr.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to the Forum. I'll go straight to your questions.

1)  I’ve read this site enough to know that my encounter was low risk and very low in the absence of symptoms.  Is there even a theoretical risk that I contracted gonorrhea or another std from my oral encounter, have it to my regular partner who carried it asymptomatically, and mine resolved itself between my encounter and testing 3 months later?  And my regular partner may still have it or get PID or some other health complication?  Is this possible but unlikely or is it impossible?

For better or worse, in medicine and disease there is nothing that is impossible however, the likelihood of the scenario you describe being the case is less than 1 in a million and probably far less. As you already know, the risk of infection was tiny to start with, your absence of symptoms even further reduces the risk and then you were tested with highly sensitive tests for gonorrhea.  Thus, there is not a realistic chance that this has happened.  if you are worried, unless there is something you have not mentioned, any concerns you have are not well founded.  

I hope this comment is helpful and reassuring. EWH