STD Risk From Used Anal Toy

[WorriedLeon]

Hello Doctors. I am a asian male, 29 years old. One week ago for the first time, I visited a dominatrix escort in Houston, TX, out of my Bi curiosity. Now I am so worried that I may catch something from the event, need your help for risk assessment and testing advice.

1) The escort used 4 anal sex toys with variant size to inserted into my anus. Since it is my first time for anal play, the dildo, which is biggest one she tried on me only came 1/4 inch of my anus because the pain. The other three (two anal plug, one anal beads) came inside of my anus with only little discomfort. The session went for about 40 minutes. There was no other form of penetrative activity.

2) The dominatrix claimed that she washed and cleaned all her toys before I came to her place (not sure I should trust her). And I know she had another client at least one hour ahead my visit. Therefore if the toys are used on the precious client, there was one hour time interval between my session and the previous one, and I was the only one who used the toys during my session.

3) Before each toy came inside my anus, the dominatrix used a new pair of latex gloves and a fresh new condom for each toy. Once we decided to change another toy, she will go ahead change the glove and condom.

After the event I suddenly realized that her toys may be used for lots of Bi/Gay and female clients for anal play, and may put me in the risk for catching std/hiv. And after searching online I found out that many people consider sharing toys is a high risk for std/hiv. Therefore I need your advice that if I realy had a risky event, and do I need to screen for Std/hiv for that? BTW I tested negative for all Std/hiv right before this event.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to our Forum.  It is my pleasure to tell you that there was no risk for HIV or other STI from the events that you describe. There are many reasons.  Your partner appears to take excellent precautions through changing gloves and condoms during your sex play- these are excellent precautions.  Further, it is statistically unlikely that her prior candidates had HIV or any other STI.  Most importantly, STIs, including HIV, are not transmitted from person to person on inanimate objects.  These bacteria and viruses are fragile and die quickly on exposure to the environment and the air.

For all of these reasons, there is no reason for concern related to the events you describe. Likewise, there is no reason for testing.  I hope this reply is helpful yo you.  EWH

[Edward W Hook, MD]

It is difficult to comment on HPV risk for all of the reasons you mention.  Further, please remember that virtually all (over 80%) of sexually active persons will have HPV at some point.  That said, my sense is that I would not worry about getting HPV in the unlikely circumstance that you don't already have it.  EWH

[WorriedLeon]

Thank you for your prompt reply. However I do forget to mention that the escort I visited also used a small vibrator to stimulate the tip of my penis externally without putting a condom on. I did checked the vibrator it looked dry on surface. But after reading some research regarding the HPV contaminated sex toy can still be detected with the trace of HPV DNA even after 24 hours on dry surface. I began to somewhat worry about getting HPV from such action.

However I do remember you mentioned before that detection of HPV DNA can not tell if the virus is still infectious. I am not sure the this theory may apply to the situation I mentioned above, and any your comment on that about the HPV risk?