Gonorreah?

[aquestion96]

Hello. I am a 30 year old male who recieved unprotected oral sex 35 days ago. I have been to the doctors and I am currently waiting my results for HIV, Hepres, Syphillis, gonorreah and chlymidia. I am very nervous about my results and I think it may be affecting my health. Since I have been tested, (2 days ago) I feel like I have to urinate more often than I usually so. There is no discharge, burning or swelling. I feel (hope) that I may just be narotic being that I have spent alot of time researching stds and there symptoms the past few days. I cant find a solid answer on my question. What are the odds I actually contacted gonorreah from oral sex? Also, what are the odds that I am still relativley symptom free 35 days later?

Thank you in advance .

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Welcome to the forum.  I'll try to help.

Urethral (penile) gonorrhea can be acquired by oral sex.  HIV, chlamydia, and syphilis almost never are.  Herpes is possible due to HSV-1, the usual cause of oral herpes.  You don't say the nature of the sexual contact, so I can't judge that part of your risk profile.

Gonorrhea almost always causes obvious symptoms within 5 days, i.e. disharge of pus from the penis, often with painful urination -- but rarely causes only the kind of urinary symptoms you report.

For all those reasons, it seems very unlikely you acquired gonorrhea or any other STD.  You should relax and not worry while you wait for your test results.  You can expect them to be negative for gonorrhea as well as all the others.  (And in the meantime, I suggest you stop searching the internet!  Anxious people tend to be drawn to information that inflames their fears.)

Feel free to return with a follow-up comment to let me know your test results.  But not until then; there's no point in speculating when you will soon have a definite answer.

Best regards--  HHH, MD

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Thanks for the thanks.  However, I would modify your advice that all sexually active people be tested "often" for STDs.  Although it is true that many STDs can be asymptomatic, most people do develop noticeable symptoms for all of them.  The average sexually active single person should plan on routine STD/HIV testing once a year, or perhaps every couple of years -- unless of course typical STD symptoms develop, or if a partner is known to have a particular infection.  And of course consistent condom use should be routine for non-monogamous encounters.

[aquestion96]

Well you were right,

All my tests came back clean. I can honestly say those 5 days in between neing tested and getting the result were torture. You were also correct when you talked about "anxious people being drawn to the wrong information". I started to actually feel the symptoms I was reading about. The more I read, the more I paniced. Thank you for calming thr storm a bit while I waited. I am very discoruaged with my eduaction with STD's prior to this incident. I had no idea so many of them could lay dormant in people without symptoms. Its very scray and I recommend anyone who is sexually active be tested often. Symptoms or not.

Thanks again