[Question #12178] HIV risk from oral

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9 months ago
Hello I had unprotected oral sex receiving a blowjob from a woman.Whats the chance of being infected if in the unlikely scenario a man who had hiv just finished in her mouth and there was leftover sperm  before she had given me a blowjob….

Also what’s the risk for other STDs?
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
9 months ago
Welcome to the forum. Thank you for your succinct question.

All in all, oral sex is safe sex:  not completely free of risk, but with very low chance of HIV and other STDs compared with vaginal or anal sex. There have been very few scientifically proved cases of HIV transmitted oral to penis, maybe none at all. Based on how some men believed they were infected -- which often is mistaken -- CDC once calculated a risk of one chance in 20,000 if the oral partner had untreated HIV. That's equivalent to receiving BJs by infected partners once daily for 55 years before transmission of the virus might be expected. And HIV is rare in women in the US, even among the most sexually active (like sex workers), so it is very unlikely your partner has HIV. In other words, zero risk for all practical purposes.

The main STDs from oral sex are gonorrhea, nongonococcal urethritis (often due to normal oral germs), and herpes due to HSV1. With a female partner, the chance of any of these is probably under one chance in a few thousand for each event. We advise against STD testing in this situation unless symptoms develop (penile discharge, painful urination, penile sores).

I doubt this risk would rise even if an infected male had ejaculated in the oral partner's mouth -- even a few minutes earlier. Natural clearance by swallowing probably would reduce the amount of virus very rapidly to very low levels. Therefore I would consider the risk no different even if the oral partner had recently performed the same service for another male.

I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.

HHH, MD
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9 months ago
That was a great answer…I’d like to continue getting bare oral with woman and I’d used condom for  vagina sex.I just have some anxiety about it even when I wear a latex condom that doesn’t appear to break,but I should be good right unless it obviously broke wide open like you say on your previous answers…

And yes in the unlikely scenario I get an std and symptoms id just get tested and treatment….I was about to go get tested anyways but if you don’t recommend it for oral and protected vagina sex without symptoms I’ll take you word for for it 

I had the condom on but wasn’t fully hard at first I tried penetration but wasn’t able to my penis head was covered the condom was loose though at first i don’t think anything touched it outside the condom and then I ended up getting hard and finished in the condom 
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
9 months ago
Yes, you'll be safe for vaginal sex with a condom as long as it doesn't break wide open. As long as the penile head and meatus (urethral opening) are covered, protection is complete. There's almost always some contact of vaginal fluids with penile skin, but that does not materially increase the risk of infection. (That's the main reason condoms are somewhat less effective in preventing the STDs transmitted skin-to-skin (herpes, HPV and syphilis) than for those transmitted by fluids (like HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia).

Even with higher risk sexual practices -- e.g. no condom at all -- in general we advise against testing after any single exposure, except in especially high risk situations (e.g. if you learn for sure a partner had a transmissible STD). Rather than testing after every event, a smarter approach is to plan on regular testing at various time intervals -- like a year, or 3 or 6 months depending on frequency of new events. And of course if symptoms of possible STI show up.
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9 months ago
So with bare oral in regards to hiv I’m probably fine,there’s no documentation of cases mouth to penis getting a blowjob.Her mouth seemed clean to me there was just saliva on it 

I don’t know she probably does have an std she is very promiscuous. 
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
9 months ago
How "clean" a partner's mouth appears makes no difference in risk of infection from oral sex. As noted above, there are STD risks, but I think you correctly understand little or no HIV risk.

At any point in time, even the most sexually active ("promiscuous") women do NOT have a transmissible STD at any point in time (not counting HPV, which you can assume exists in all sexually active people, including yourself).
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9 months ago
Got it so no matter what oral sex risk for hiv is only theoretical and it’s likely lower than conservative estimates 1/20,000….

No matter if her gums or bleeding etc or whatever other scenario there’s never been a documented case.
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
9 months ago
I can't say the risk is lower than 1 in 20K. There simply are no solid data. Could gum bleeding raise the risk? I suppose so. OTOH, there must have been millions if not billions of episodes of fellatio while gums were bleeding, and there still are few or no known cases of HIV transmission. So it can't make too much difference.

That completes the two follow-up comments and replies included with each question and so ends this thread. I hope the discussion has been helpful.

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