[Question #12709] massage

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6 months ago

Hello Doctor,

Two weeks ago, I went to a sexual massage parlor and received a handjob with massage oil from a masseuse until I ejaculated. There was no intercourse, oral sex, or anal sex. After it ended, she used a hot towel from the parlor to wipe my genitals and body.

1.I have read many of your answers on the forum stating that sexual massage (receiving a handjob) is a safe sexual activity that does not transmit gonorrhea, genital warts, or other worrying STDs. However, I have also found many articles and comments from other doctors on Google claiming that there is a risk, which confuses me.

2.Could the parlor’s towels and massage oil be a medium for transmitting STDs? Many online sources say that gonorrhea, chlamydia, genital warts, and other sexually transmitted diseases can survive outside the human body in a warm and moist environment for over an hour. Is it possible for them to survive on a towel or in massage oil? For instance, if a hot towel provided by the parlor was contaminated with a previous customer’s semen or secretions, or with the HPV virus that causes genital warts, and was not cleaned properly before it touched my genitals, could that lead to indirect infection?

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6 months ago
Just yesterday, I noticed a small bump near the lower part of my urethral opening. It is very tiny and looks somewhat like a pimple or folliculitis, with a slightly white tip. In the past, I have had similar pimple-like folliculitis on the base of my penis. However, considering my experience 14 days ago, I am worried that it might be genital warts.
Is it possible for genital warts to appear within two weeks of exposure? I read online that the incubation period for genital warts is usually around 3 to 4 months, but there seem to be cases where symptoms appear as early as two weeks.
Additionally, how long does it take for genital warts to grow from a small lesion to a noticeable size? If I observe it for a week and there is no significant change, can I rule out genital warts?
4. Should I avoid sexual activity with my partner?
5. Two weeks ago, I had a cold. Could my weakened immune system have increased my risk of contracting an STI?   Thank you H. Hunter Handsfield or Edward Hook for your answer. English is not my native language, I hope this will not cause any trouble for you to read.
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
6 months ago
Welcome to the forum. Thank you for your confidence in our services. Your English is very clear; assuming you have used a translation program, it appears to be a good one. Directly to your questions:

1. Thank you for reading other threads with questions like your own. You can trust what you have seen here. Be careful searching online about HIV/STI risks and how they are transmitted. Anyone can write anything they want. You'll do best if you search only sites by professional organizations or professionally moderated forums (like this one) and avoid sites run by and for people who are infected or at risk -- like Reddit, for example. So many people don't really understand how and when they were infected or the truth about risks, symptoms, etc. And some posts are intentionally untruthful or otherwise not science based.

2. Nobody has ever been know to acquire STIs by the indirect sorts of contact you describe; you are at no risk from such exposures. That an STI bacteria or virus can survive for a while outside the body doesn't mean it can be transmitted or caught. For example, the household members of persons with HIV, herpes, gonorrhea, chlamydia, or any other STI never catch it, even after years of sharing toilets, kitchens, showers, towels, clothing etc. These infections are called sexually transmitted for good reason:  sex itself is required for transmission. As I said above, limit your searching to professional sources.

3. I cannot judge the cause of the "bump" you have on your penis, except that no STI is a likely cause. Warts look different than pimples, folliculitis, etc. Probably this bump has nothing to do with the handjob you experienced a few months earlier. See a doctor if it continues; in the meantime, do not squeeze or otherwise manipulate it, which would make diagnosis  more difficult.

4. From all you say, it should be entirely safe to continue your usual sexual practices with your partner.

5. Colds do not weaken the immune system; that's an urban myth. No illnesses of any kind increase theirs of STI if exposed.

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

HHH, MD
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6 months ago
Dear Dr. Hunter Handsfield,Thank you for your personal reply. It has been extremely helpful to me. Once again, thank you for everything you have done.
So, genital warts (HPV) or other sexually transmitted infections may survive outside the human body for some time (for example, on a damp and warm towel), but by then they have lost their infectivity and pose no threat. In other words, a virus or bacterium surviving outside the body does not necessarily mean it remains infectious. Is my understanding correct?
Regardless of what the small pimples on my penis might be, I can at least be certain that they have nothing to do with the massage parlor visit or anything I came into contact with 14 days ago, because neither the timing nor the mode of transmission aligns with that of genital warts. Is my understanding correct?
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
5 months ago
What we know is that nobody develops genital warts who did not have sex -- even after years of sharing homes, toilets, kitchens, towels, etc with infected persons. That shows that contact with a contaminated environment carries little or no risk of transmission. To my knowledge, no research has attempted to learn the biological reasons for absence of risk. What you say is logical and makes sense -- losing infectivity, for example. But that's all we know.

I also remain confident that whatever you're seeing on your penis isn't an STI. And warts do not appear sooner than 6-8 weeks after exposure.
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