[Question #12388] Oral
8 months ago
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Hi doctors,
I am pretty sure I know the answer, but just want to be safe.
End of sept I performed a blowjob on a male (46y/o) co worker- not that it matters but incident was short and no ejaculation occurred. In start of November I started dating a new man. Worried about chlamydia from the blow job ( I performed in sept) I took 500 mg of azithromycin x3 days ( which I know is not the drug or dose recommended, but it’s what I had on hand) we had the oral sex and vaginal sex about 2 weeks after the antibiotic. Could I have had chlamydia or would it have self cleared by 8 weeks and or cleared by antibiotic? Neither one of us have symptoms and I was tested for vaginal stds at my annual in October. My OCD is ruining wild and I am terrified I might have transmitted chlamydia to my new boyfriend.
8 months ago
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Edited to say * pharyngeal chlamydia
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
8 months ago
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Welcome to the forum. Thank you for your confidence in our services.
There's been a lot of buzz online about oral chlamydia -- much of it nonsense or at least with major misunderstandings. Chlamydia does not take well to the throat and infection is very rare. Even if exposed to chlamydia by oral sex, actual infection is rare. And when tests are positive, they often are due to transient presence of chlamydial DNA, with no live bacteria -- and the tests usually are negative when repeated. For these reasons, there actually has never been a reported case of scientifically documented transmission of chlamydia oral to penis. Certainly some persons believe that's how they were infected, but the truth is that it's very rare.
As for your situation, there is no chance you infected your most recent partner with chlamydia, for several reasons. First, it is statistically unlikely your co-worker was infected. (Chlamydia is very rare in people over age 30.) Second, for the reasons above, little chance you acquired oral infection even if he had it. Third, the azithromycin you took almost certainly would have cured it if you were infected. Fourth, your negative test results.
As a final bit of advice, beware of the downsides of internet searching. Like many anxious persons, or others with OCD, I suspect you're selectively seeing all sorts of information that reinforces your fears and missing the reassuring bits. The internet often is not a good friend to anxious persons. At least do your best to limit searching to professionally run or moderated sites, and be especially wary of those run by an for people with chlamydia (or any other health problems that might concern you) -- like Reddit, for example.
So you really needn't worry at all. I do hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.
HHH, MD
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8 months ago
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Thank you so much for the information. Do you happen to know the self cure rates of pharyngeal chlamydia or is it too rare to study?
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
8 months ago
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It's difficult to study, probably 100% within 6 weeks.---
8 months ago
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Great! So just to put my mind at ease… the chances of me getting pharyngeal chlamydia and transmitting it from this encounter is zero for all purposes
1. Chlamydia is rare is 46 yr men ( and he had no symptoms)
2. I took 1.5g of azithromycin over 3 days
3. I waited 8 weeks to have sex both oral and vaginal ( so had I had it, it would have been gone by then )
Does this sound good?
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
8 months ago
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If you read and understood all I said above, you'll know that no matter what your STI risks might be in the future, you will never have pharyngeal chlamydia. It's almost nonexistent.
And yes -- all three statements are correct.
That completes the two follow-up comments and replies included with each question and so ends this thread. Happy holidays!
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