[Question #13260] Short oral sex

1 months ago

Dear Doctor,

I am male 43 years old, I had a sexual contact yesterday with a girl I am meeting for couple of weeks now. She is 39 years old. We agreed to have protected sex both for oral and vaginal part, but at the beginning I received a short unprotected oral sex lasting around 30 seconds. Then the vaginal sex was protected. I checked the condom, it did not break. She had no sores on her mouth and her vagina was clean as far as I saw. I would like to know what risks are there for contacting STD from this sexual act. She also said she had sex last time around 3 months before. Thank you for your answer.

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

1 months ago

Welcome back.

You don't provide some key information -- the nature of your new partner. But having last had sex 3 months previously, it sounds like there's a low chance she has any transmissible STIs. Oral sex is inherently low risk and the condom protected vaginal event also is very low risk. It's almost never necessary to test for STIs after single exposures, especially in low risk situations like this. Your chances of infection are near zero and I do not advise testing.

Assuming you expect the relationship to go forward, why not plan on both of you having STI testing (gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV, syphilis -- but no others)? If both test negative, you'll both be reassured and might decide to skip the condoms.

HHH, MD

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30 days ago

Thank you for your answer. She works in an office, is single and also an amateur painter. No sex worker or anything similar. I asked her if she ever had any sti problems, she said never before. She divorced last October. I hope this helps to determine more the risks...does it?

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

30 days ago

Thanks for the additional information. I see no reason for concern about STI risk; your partner is probably as low risk as can be imagined, other than someone who had never had sex. Depending on your own past sexual history, even my conservative advice -- that you both be tested -- may be overkill. From a statistical/probability perspective, you may be a greater risk of giving her an STI than her risk for you. If I were in your situation, I probably wouldn't be using condoms for vaginal sex (assuming no contraceptive need) and would not be worried about oral sex. This isn't a guarantee there is no risk for STI -- that's not possible -- but the risks seem very low.---