[Question #7216] Follow up | [Question #6947] Protected Sex | Deep Kissing | STI Risk

5 months ago

Dear Doctor,

This is a quick follow up to my last post: some clarifications pls:

1) By Deep kissing i meant open mouth kissing/french kissing where the kissing lasted for 10-20 seconds in both episodes. ( not sure if I used my tongue during kiss but assuming I did and it was passionate ) I just wanted to be clear as you mentioned that French Kissing is No STI/STDs risk activity except the possibility of HSV 1 .

Please Confirm.

2) About open mouth / french kissing and oral gonorrhea possibilities , given that it is already 3 years since my exposure and i never had any symptoms should i be worried. Also my urine test for gonorrhea was negative. I read in one of your post that gonorrhea/oral Gonorrhea is cleared by the immune system in a few weeks to sometimes a few months.

This was just bothering me and hence the clarification pls.

Thanks

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

5 months ago

1) I know what "deep kissing" means and of course am aware of its usual duration. You correctly understand my previous reply.

2) You correctly understand about duration of gonorrhea, oral or otherwise. Even if you had it from an event 3 years ago, it is long gone.

Your previous discussion ended with this advice and warning. "Please note that the forum does not permit repeated questions on the same topic or exposure. This being your second on this exposure and STD/HIV testing, it should be your last. Future new questions along these lines may receive reply and may be deleted without comment and without refund of the posting fee. This policy is based on compassion, not criticism, and is designed to reduce temptations to keep paying for questions with obvious answers. In addition, our experience is that continued answers to anxiety-driven questions simply prolong those anxieties, when a better option is usually to seek professional counseling. Finally, such questions have little educational value for other users, one of the forum's main purposes."

If you post anything along these lines again, you will not receive even this much of a reply; the question will simply not be visible on the website. Do your best to move on without further worry. If you cannot, professional counseling is the way to go. It is not mentally normal to remain so fearful after the repeated, reasoned, science-based reassurance you have had. Good luck with it and thanks again for your understanding.

HHH, MD

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