[Question #7915] unprotected oral std risk

50 months ago

I am a 30 year old male and last week I hooked up with another male who is HIV+ but undetectable (according to him, and I do believe him). We engaged in unprotected oral (69) for around 10-15 minutes, with neither of us ejaculating. Overall, he was performing on me more than I was on him. I also used my fingers on his rectum for a few minutes and we tried to have anal with me as the top but I was unable to and only ended up having my penis rest on his rectum for a few seconds (it never went in and was too flacid to do so). I really made a mistake with this encounter and very heavily regret doing it and now I am scared that I somehow have an STD. I know my risk is low in this encounter but I am still afraid that something could have happened. I reached out to him to ask if he had anything else I should be worried about and he never responded.

I got a 10 panel std test 5 days after this incident and I am afraid that I may have caught a std from his mouth to my penis, more specifically gonorrhea/chlamydia since I already have herpes and I am vaccinated against HPV. I do not have any symptoms, nothing looks or feels wrong with my penis and my mouth feels and looks completely normal. Am I just over reacting? Is there any chance I CAN get HIV from this encounter? Today marks the 1 week mark from this incident.

Edward W. Hook M.D.

50 months ago

Welcome to the Forum and thanks for your questions. Thanks as well for your confidence in our services. I’ll be glad to comment.

First, let me tell you that persons with HIV who are treated and have undetectable HIV levels in the blood do not transmit their infections. Further the acts you engaged in are very, very low risk, even if his HIV was detectable. There are no proven instances in which HIV has been acquired from receipt of oral sex from and infected partner and inserting your fingers into his rectum likewise is a no risk event. There are a handful of instances in which HIV appears to have been acquired from performing oral sex on an untreated, infected partners but the risk for infection is substantially less than 1 infection per more than 10,000 acts of fellatio ( in other words, chances are 99.99% that you were not infected if he had detectable HIV.

This was a virtually no risk event for HIV and close to no risk for other STIs. If you did not have a throat swab for Gonorrhea and chlamydia, it would be reasonable to have such a test performed but the likelihood you were infected by the encounter you describe is close to zero. I would not worry and other than possibly for the throat swab for Gonorrhea/chlamydia I see no reason for further testing. I hope this perspective is helpful. EWH

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