Had unprotected oral (me, male) to anal (her, prost.) contact about 4 months ago. After 1 week noticed sharp pain on right side of throat, difficulty opening my jaw fully (this only lasted a few days). However, the throat pain continued and lasted until now. It varies from a feeling of tightness on the sides or base of my throat to sharp pain to occasionally a burning feeling. Initially saw what looked likeAt its best it just feels like "something is there that shouldn't be". The symptoms have a tendency to oscillate from ok to bad and back every few days. Sometimes I feel tightness in my chest (EKG normal) and pressure/discomfort in/around my eyes(sinuses?). No cough, no phlegm, no fever. I have never had allergies to anything. Around 1 month I had some joint and muscle soreness. Got night sweats starting around 1 month post exposure to now, almost everynight (just head and shoulders, I wake up with a soaked pillow- these seem to be getting better now around month 4. Tried many antibiotics including amoxicillin, cefuroxime axetil, metronidazole and some antivirals (valtrex). Got 2-3 tiny colorless bumps on fingers/hands that were quite painful but disappeared after about 1 week as well as some pruritis on my forearms (not sure if this was from all the meds I was taking). Tested for all STDs at 1, 2 and 3 months (syphillus, HIV1/2, chlam, gonorrhea (throat culture as well as urine), all negative. Around 2 months tried 250mg ceftriaxone IM + 1g oral azithromycin. No improvement in symptoms until about 5 days after the ceftriaxone injection, but then throat symptoms came back a couple weeks later. After 3 months saw an ENT who said it just looked like a little redness around the junction of my throat and esophagus (said it could be acid reflux). Could this be oral HPV or maybe a parasite or some other antibiotic resistant bacteria? What else should I test for? I've heard the gonorrhea throat swab gives false negatives and is harder to treat. What about 16S RNA testing?

Welcome to our forum and thanks for your question. I’ll be glad to comment. The symptoms you describe are not suggestive of any STI. Further, the antibiotics that you have taken over the course of this illness would have cured virtually all bacterial STI’s.  When HPV occurs in the throat, it is most often asymptomatic which is also the case for most other STI’s.  My sense is that this is more likely to be a dental problem (perhaps an abscess) or an ENT problem than anything you acquired from the interaction you describe. My advice would be for you to return to the ENT who is seeing you before. That person will have the advantage of having examined you in the past and may be able to detect subtle changes which will lead to a diagnosis.---