[Question #8398] Help! Symptoms and Anxiety
45 months ago
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Hello, I am a 24 y/o international student in the UAE, I had a sexual encounter with a thai girl at a massage parlour 13 days ago. It involved unprotected oral sex, and protected vaginal sex (I am 99% sure but cannot be 100% sure because I was drunk) We used multiple condoms as we were going back and forth from oral to vaginal sex.
I have been having a sore throat since the past 3 days (very slight), I feel slightly feverish sometimes, and have maybe developed some sort of UTI as I have burning sensation while peeing and have some pain in the bladder.
Are these symptoms of HIV or do I just have a UTI? I am extremely tense and cannot focus on anything else. I feel like my life is about to be ruined. I am feeling extremely anxious at all times and dont know what to do.
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
45 months ago
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Welcome to the forum. Thanks for your confidence in our services.
You describe an exceedingly low risk sexual encounter with respect to HIV (probably zero risk) and very low risk for other STIs. It is far more likely that your mild sore throat is due to a common cold (or COVID-19) than to a new HIV infection. "Feeling fevering" and your bladder discomfort sound more like anxiety than anything else. UTIs are rare in healthy younger men, and no STI causes bladder bladder pain.
If I were in your situation, I wouldn't even be tested for HIV or anything else and would continue unprotected sex with my wife without worry. But most people in your situation are more reassured by negative test results than by professional advice, no matter how expert. A urine test for gonorrhea and chlamydia is valid any time more than 4-5 days after exposure. And a urinalysis would also be negative and might reassure you about UTi. You could also have an HIV test after another few weeks.
Do consider COVID testing as well!
Please don't worry. In the 16 years of this and our preceding forum, with thousands of questions from people worried about maybe having acquired HIV, not one person turned out to be infected. You won't be the first! If and when that happens, it will be from a legitimately high risk exposure (like unprotected vaginal or anal sex with a known infected person) and not a trivially risky exposure of the sort you have described.
I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.
HHH, MD
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45 months ago
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Thank you Sir,
your reply does put my mind at ease although I still plan on getting tested. Just to follow up, Im having a burning sensation on my penis, is there anything that could be related to this encounter? Also, as I mentioned I am not 100% sure of being protected at all times. could you please tell me about that. Is the risk of exposure still very low? I have no reason to believe that the girl had HIV. Just really anxious and worried. Also are there any specific symptoms that I need to look out for? Thank you
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
45 months ago
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The unprotected oral exposure could have resulted in a urethral infection like gonorrhea, chlamydia or nongonococcal urethritis. Burning "on" the penis doesn't fit (sounds like anxiety), but inside the penis when urinating could be significant. But if you have gonorrrhea or NGU, you also should have abnormal discharge. If this symptom continues, see a doctor or clinic, which would include gonorrhea and chlamydia testing as well as professional exam. (There are very good STD clinics in Dubai.)
As for HIV, none of this is suggestive and you were not at risk. There has never been a proved HIV infection transmitted mouth to penis, and almost never with condom protected sex.
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
45 months ago
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Correction: Chlamydia almost never is transmitted by oral sex. You were at risk for gonorrhea and NGU, but not chlamydia.---