I am a young straight female, and about two and a half months ago I performed brief unprotected oral sex on a man who is an aquatintence of mine, but whose STD status I am unaware of.  

Since this incident, I have been tested throughly for all common STDs, and each test has come back clean.  I was researching online and came across the concept of oral gonorrhea/chlamydia, which I don’t think I even knew existed.  I then asked my doctor if he felt I should be tested for this also, and he said no.  I have really been trying to put this entire thing behind me ever since it happened, but the thought of the gonorrhea/chlamydia in my throat still has been stuck in the back of my mind.  I have no reason to think the man who I did this with isn’t clean, but I don’t know that for certain.  

Recently again, I asked my doctor if he would test me for it; he proceeded to tell me they don’t have the proper swabs in office, and again assured me he felt that it wasn’t necessary.  I looked into local clinics for the test, and nowhere around me seems to perform this test.  

Long story short, I went and ordered an FDA approved kit online and mailed my sample back a few days ago.   I am hoping for results on Monday.   

Within the past week or two, my throat has been irritated off and on.  The glands in my throat/neck on the right side are slightly swollen.  At nearly 11 weeks past possible exposure, I am hoping this unrelated to that experience.  (I have also read the oral gonorrhea/chlamydia can be asymptotic).  

I am just wondering, how much of a risk are these STDs based off what I did?   Is it possible for me to transmit these STDs if they were to be in my throat?  (I have a steady boyfriend who I resumed being intimate with once all my other tests came back fine).  I do take solace in the fact that all my other tests have come back clean and I am hoping for more of the same with these results.  I'm currently a bundle of nerves over this. 

Thank you

That said, your doctor is wrong about testing the throat for gonorrhea. No special swab is necessary, and any standard lab can do a culture test for gonorrhea.

You'll have to tell me more about the "FDA approved kit" you have requested. If that's for urine or vaginal swab, it will be reliable -- except you cannot have a genital infection via oral exposure. If it's a swab test intended for the throat, the result probably will be reliable.

If you had oral gonorrhea, it probably is gone by now:  such infections are cleared by the immune system within a few weeks, without ever causing symptoms. Oral chlamydia causes no symptoms at all, and there has never been a case of oral chlamydia known to have been transmitted to a partner either by oral sex or by kissing.

Tell me about the test kit you are expecting, and I may have more to say.

HHH, MD

Doctor,

The kit that I ordered online was from a website which offers different types of at-home STD testing.  I looked into ‘gonorrhea & chlamydia’, and with the particular swab test that I ordered, you could choose which body site you were looking to test:  penile/vaginal, rectal, or oral.   I chose oral.  I will say that when it arrived to me and I opened the packaging of the swab, it said on it ‘vaginal swab’, but the instructions I received along with it were for how to collect a sample orally, and once I did that, I was directed to place a sticker that came along with the kit that said “ORAL” across the tube containing my sample.  

I thought it may have been a little strange that the swab itself indicated that it was for vaginal use(?), but everything else in the kit correctly stated I was collecting an oral sample.  I figured maybe as long as it was clear which body site it was being used to test with, it didn’t so much matter what the swab itself said.  I’m not sure. 

This is what the website states about their gonorrhea/chlamydia test :   “...we’ll mail you a chlamydia and gonorrhea test kit and deliver quick and accurate Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAAT) results — all from the privacy and comfort of your own home.  Our partner laboratory follows the same strict FDA approved medical standards and latest DNA methods you’d find at your physicians office.”  They promise results within 4 business days of receiving your sample; I’ve gotten a notification stating that my order is being processed.

I am hoping this test is trustworthy and not a waste.  Please understand, this is not something I would have done on my own had my doctor agreed to do the swab for me in office.  Maybe I should have let this go long ago and for a period, I did, but ultimately it bothered me enough that I felt I should do this.  I don’t want to seem silly or ridiculous. 

Now come to think of it, I am wondering..... when I did the at home test, I was not instructed to actually swab the back of my throat.  It directed me to swab the inside of my cheeks, gum line, base of tongue.  Is this still an efficient way to get an accurate sample?   I certainly hope so.

Not to get ahead of myself, but I am curious about transmission in regards to this.  In trying to research online, I find conflicting information.  My usual partner does not know that I had this one time single exposure with someone else, and as I said, I held off being intimate with him until my other STD results came back clean.  IF my mouth/throat were to be infected, is it possible/probable that I infect him by performing oral sex on him?   And then, if that were to occur, could he then give me gonorrhea vaginally by having sex?  Or is this all just all just too much of a round-about way for it to happen?

I ask because I have had sex (oral & intercourse) with him on several different occasions now.   As a result, he has not mentioned having any kind of issues to me or anything.  I have been so paranoid about this situation that just late last week I went for another gonorrhea urine test, in hopes that if the scenario that I asked about above did occur, that the urine test would catch a vaginal infection.  The test came back negative.

Thank you again for your input.

Let me know the result of your oral test when available. I won't have any further comments until then -- and that will be my last comment when the time comes.

This is certainly a relief for me and eases my mind.  The only thing I have questioned is this kit directing me to swab my mouth versus my throat — I am hoping that doesn’t change the accuracy of my results.   I did contact the company and asked that question; their response was that “the bacteria does not stay focused in the back of the throat only.  The oral cavity is also considered to be a surrogate to detect the infection.”  I will do my best to trust these results. 

I appreciate the information you have given me; thank you again