STD risks

[bj1541]

Hi Doctors,
   I have been a long time reader of your forum but I am still concerned and wanted to clarify everything once and for all.  Please assess the risk levels of my following encounters.
   1. I live in China and I been visiting massage parlors here pretty often in the past two months. I received two handjobs from two different massage therapists. For the first one (a month ago), she massaged me with oil and then gave me a unprotected handjob. Nothing special. But for the second one (today), she first massaged me and then she licked my body (ears,torso, leg) with a jelly in her month. she said it was for her own protection, because it was cleaner this way. However, I noticed the jelly was inside of her mouth before she used it to lick my body. She also sucked my nipples very briefly twice. Then she went on and gave me a unprotected handjob till I ejaculate. The thing that kind of worries me is that during the handjob she rubbed her palm on the top of my penis. I didn't check her palm but I don't think she has any obvious cuts, lesions or sores on her body. I am concerned if the palm-rubbing,jelly and the nipple-sucking added any risk for any STDs?
   2. After a night of heavy drinking (probably 12 days ago), I went to get a oral sex from a prostitute. The oral sex was protected but I wasn't able ejaculate so she went on giving me a unprotected handjob. Then I asked for oral sex again, she used the SAME condom she used for the previous oral sex, it only lasted for a little while because I still wasn't able to ejaculate. So I went to find another prostitute for oral sex. She put on a condom for me but she cleaned off the lubricant outside of the condom. Then we had protected oral sex and then unprotected handjob til I ejaculate. I have no symptoms of anything so far. What is my risk of acquiring any STDs?

   Thanks very much for your time, I really appreciate it.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Welcome to the forum.  I'll try to help.  However, as a regular reader of the forum, I suspect you can predict my replies.  As we have said innumerable times, hand-genital contact is entirely safe, with no STD risk.  Oral to genital contact, if not protected by a condom, carries some STD transmission risk, but quite low for most STDs and zero risk for some of them.  And oral contact with the skin, anywhere on the body, carries no STD risk at all.  When STDs involve the mouth, generally they are localized to the back of the throat (except for oral herpes); and saliva inhibits all STD bacteria and viruses, so contact with saliva on skin is always safe.  In my 4 decades in the STD business, I have never seen a patient with contacts like yours who had any STD.

In summary, there was absolutely no risk of any STD from any of the exposures you describe.  No testing is necessary; if you have a regular sex partner, it is safe to continue unprotected sex.

Here is another thread that explains the biological reasons why exposures like this carry no risk.  Read the entire discussion; some of the important points are in follow-up comments:  http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/1119533

Best regards--  HHH, MD

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Yes, that kind of condom re-use still provides protected sex.

The STDs sometimes transmitted by oral sex are gonorrhea, HSV-1, syphilis, and nongonococcal urethritis.  No risk for chlamydia and little or no risk for HIV, HPV, and viral hepatitis.

That will be all for this thread.  Don't over-think it.  You are not at risk from the exposures described.

[bj1541]

Thanks for the reply. And the thread you suggested really explains a lot matters.

Sorry but I have one more question. You said "  Oral to genital contact, if not protected by a condom, carries some STD transmission risk, but quite low for most STDs and zero risk for some of them." What kinds of STDs do Oral to genital contact might put me in risk? Does it still consider protected oral sex if the sex worker used the same condom she performed the protected oral on me the first time, for a second oral later?

Thanks again.