Trying to be safe, now just worried!

[reallyworried111]

About 10 months ago I had oral sex with a woman not my wife; it was one drunken mistake (the only one ever made) and I forgot about it. Around the same time, my wife had a yeast infection, although it went away with standard treatment for that. More recently, she  sometimes complains about stomach cramps. I encouraged her to go to a doctor, but she insisted that the stomach cramps were run-of-the-mill indigestion. But I was all the sudden paranoid that maybe it was some kind of STD from the oral sex. I’ve been tested several times for stds since, all negative. But, I’ve also had several surgeries, and I took some hardcore IV antibiotics for a little while because of that. My questions:

1) At the time I got the STD tests we had been having sex normally (and I had stopped post-surgical care) for months – if she had PID or something like that (I know the PID isn’t an STD itself, but you know what I mean), is it safe to assume I would have gotten it and tested positive?

2) Would the medicine used to treat a yeast infection have any affect on any STD’s . . . is the fact that that treatment seemed to do the trick a good sign?

Bottom line, we are thinking of starting a family soon, and I’m starting to get a little terrified that I might caused her to have  PID . . . she hasn’t had any fevers at all or any serious abdominal pains, but I know it can be “silent” too. Is 3 or 4 negative STD tests for myself pretty good assurance that this isn’t the case? I want to do everything I can for my wife’s health, but I don’t want to damage my marriage for something that’s all in my head either, which after reading through some old forum answers seems just as likely. Help!?

[reallyworried111]

Thanks for all your advice. It is truly appreciated!

[Edward W Hook, MD]

You are being nit picky.  You never had an STD to start with.  Worried therefore that you gave your wife an STD (including PID) are fanciful and paranoid.  

If your wife had an STD, from you or anyone else, it would be transmitted to you and you would have positve tests.

it's really time to move on from here.  EWH

[reallyworried111]

Or to make it a simpler question: can a woman have an asymptomatic pid caused by an std, but no longer be contagious for the std itself?

[reallyworried111]

Sorry to nitpick one more time . . . I never doubted the reliability of the std tests . . . rather I was asking if my chain of inferences is logically sound: my 4 negative std tests = i  probably never had an std in the first place because = if I had had one originally and give it to my wife and she had asymptomatic pid = she would still have given the std back to me at some point = I would have tested positive

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Interesting. Vancomycin actually is one fo the few antibiotics with little activity against the agents of STDs, not that it matters to you.  You still do not have an STD.  As you point out, even with asymptomatic infections and silent PID, the tests perfom well for STD detection.  Believe your test results.   They are reliable.  EWH

[reallyworried111]

Thanks for you reply doctor!

The medicine I was on was something like vancomyacin (probably spelled it wrong), although I guess that doesn't matter too much for your answer. So I am correct in inferring from your answer that even when pid is silent and caused by an std, that std is still transmissible, hence my repeated negative tests can be relied on? And even if I was cured initially by my surgical antibiotics, after 6 months of normal relations I would have reacquired an std if one were present?

Thanks so much for your answers . . . I promise not to beat this horse dead

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to the Forum.  I suspect it is your guilt, not an STD that needs to be addressed.  You have had negative tests for STDs and while you do not mention which antibiotics you have taken, many antibiotics are highly effective against the organisms which cause most STDs.  In answer to your specific questions:

1.  If you had given her an STD which lead to PID your tests would have been positive.

2.  No, medication for yeast has no effect on STDs.  That the yeast medication cleared up her symptoms suggests that indeed it was yeast that she had.  As for STDs, many STDs in women (but few in men) are asymptomatic.  Had she had an STD, she may well not have had symptoms.   I provide this information for clarity, not because I think there is a realistic possibility that you had an STD which you then gave to your wife to account for her current indigestion symptoms.  

Bottom line.  Believe the tests. They are highly reliable.  if you are having trouble working through your guilt over your actions, you may wish to talk things through with a counselor.

Hope these comments are helpful.  EWH