[Question #13004] Risk of Transmission
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3 months ago
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Hello,
About 2 months ago I had too much to drink and had a one night stand. Unprotected vaginal sex with a male. No reason to believe the male has an STD, said he hadn’t been with anyone since his ex. And was with his ex for 15yrs. I also have no symptoms and I have checked/looked at myself down there a few times in the past 2 months and have never seen anything abnormal. I do plan on getting tested for STD’s at 3 months. What are the risks I could have contracted genital herpes or genital warts from this exposure? And if contracted, would symptoms typically have shown up by now? I am just confused and have lots of anxiety bc online it says symptoms can show up years later. I was just wondering in reality if this typically happens? Or do symptoms typically show up by a certain time?
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
3 months ago
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Welcome to the forum.
Because of a random circumstance of my travels, the timing of your post, and our probably different time zones, I cannot address your question in detail for several hours. But not wanting you to go a long time without reassurance, I will just say you are at little or no risk for any STD in this situation. That includes HPV and HSV -- I can't say the risk is zero, but it is exceedingly low. I don't think you need STD testing at 3 months or any other time. I hope this information helps you relax a bit. Look for a more detailed response soon.
HHH, MD
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
3 months ago
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Greetings again. To expand on my brief comments above, you describe a partner who is unlikely to have an active, transmissible STD. You also are correct in understanding that HPV and herpes are very common and because they can last for life, even persons at little or no recent risk for STD sometimes transmit them to partners. However, this is uncommon from any single exposure.
Feel free to be tested for STDs if you wish, but if you do so, I would advise only urine or vaginal swab testing for gonorrhea and chlamydia, which can be done any time more than 4-5 days after exposure; and syphilis and HIV blood tests after 6 weeks. You needn't wait as long as 3 months. There are no tests for HPV in this situation; even though HPV testing is normally included with Pap smears, those tests are not intended to check for infection after only one exposure and would not detect most new infections in circumstances like yours. And the HSV blood tests also have problems in this situation. I don't advise you be tested for them.
Finally, as for symptoms showing up "years later", that is uncommon for herpes. Most people with newly acquired HSV develop obvious symptoms. In that case -- e.g. if within 2 weeks you get genital sores, of course get checked for herpes. But otherwise I really wouldn't worry about it. HPV indeed can first show up after many years, but assuming you have had an average sex life -- with at least a handful of past sexual partners -- you can safely assume you already have had HPV (90% of all people acquire genital HPV), and adding a single new exposure does not raise the chance of having an HPV problem (like an abnormal Pap smear). This is the basic reason all women should follow Pap smear guidelines regardless of their sexual lifestyle and STD risks.
As I said, you are free to be tested as outlined above, but I suggest it only for reassurance, not because you are at high risk or likely to have a positive test result..
I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.
HHH, MD
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3 months ago
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Thank you so much for your response, I do feel much better now about this situation. I will do the tests you recommended just for peace of mind. Also I was wondering if you had any info on a possible HSV vaccine in the near future? I read there are some mrna vaccines that look promising.
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
3 months ago
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Thanks for the thanks. I'm glad you're feeling better and my comments were helpful.
Don't hold your breath about HSV vaccines. "Near" future can be interpreted in more than one way. To a scientist developing a vaccine, "near" might be 5 years. To the worried partner of an infected person, even one year isn't "near" at all. However you define "near", I doubt we will see an effective HSV prevention vaccine available to the public sooner than 10 years -- maybe 5 years if we're lucky.
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