[Question #9472] Oral Sex and protected intercourse

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32 months ago
hi, i was in a vacation in the gulf states and i went out with an escort
kissed her, she performed unprotected oral sex on me and we have protected intercourse
during the intercourse i was a bit too fast and after the intercourse i felt a slight pain in my  left testicle, no swelling or anything serious, did feel the pain for a few days though..
its been a week since then, the pain in my testicales is gone and i made the mistake of googling about sti symptoms
from what i understand getting unprotected oral from a woman can put me in a risk for gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis
i do not see any warts,pimples or weird swelling, no penis discharge, the only thing that worried me is the left testicle pain which is more or less gone now, after reading about gonorrhea i started to sense some urination burn at the start of peeing but its probably me being nervous, what do you think
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
32 months ago
Welcome. Thank you for your confidence in our services.

This was a very safe sexual exposure, with little risk of STDs. To start, escorts (expensive female sex workers by appointment) generally are believed to be low risk partners. Most know the score, care about their health, are tested frequently, require condoms, and their clients tend to be low risk -- men like you.

Be careful when going online about STD risks. Many or most agencies providing STD education simply state that STD X (e.g. gonorrhea) is a risk from sexual practice X (like oral sex), but say nothing about numerical risk. Sure, oral sex can transmit gonorrhea. However, even the most sexually active women, under 1% have oral gonorrhea; and when oral gonorrhea is present, it probalby is transmited about one time in a hundred episodes of oral sex. So we can estimate your risk at somewhere around one in 10,000 (0.01 x 0.01 = 0.0001). In general, oral sex is safe sex -- very low risk for all STDs and zero for some, including HIV.

And urethral gonorrhea almost always causes obvious symptoms -- pus dripping from the penis and painful urination -- within 4-5 days. With no such symptoms, you can be sure you do not have gonorrhea. (Minor burning urination isn't a symptom that counts for anything in absence of discharge. That sound entirely psychological:  and when someone suggests his or her own symptoms have a psychological origin ("its probalby me being nervous"), usually they are exactly right!

As for your testicular pain, no infection can start to cause symptoms during exposure, and never sooner than 36-48 hours. So your testicular discomfort was not due to any STD from this exposure. That also may have been primarily psychological.

So I would describe STD testing as optional. If somehow I found myself in your situation, I would not be tested and would continue unprotected sex with my wife with no worry about infecting her with anything. That said, of course you are free to be tested if the expected negative results would increase your confidence. This does not mean I really believe you were at risk. I do not -- only for reassurance if it would help. If so, you can have a valid urine test for gonorrhea and chlamydia at any time; and blood tests for syphilis and HIV after 6 weeks. 

I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.

HHH, MD
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32 months ago
Thank you very much for your reply
i did get a bit paranoid but i assumed this was a low risk exposure, i guess im going to move on with my life
thanks
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
32 months ago
Glad to hear it. Thanks for the thanks.---