[Question #9892] Massage STD concerns

28 months ago

I know this is a question that seems to be asked a lot, but there seems to be some contradicting information on the internet. So back in 2021 I went twice for massages that resulted in a "happy ending" the masseuse gave me a hand job using massage oil, nothing else happened. About 10 weeks ago I went for a massage that was just a pure massage nothing sexual happened, although it seemed like the type of place that it could. I have a dark red spot that just popped up on my upper inner thigh, my initial thought was it was a bug bite but now the lymphnode next to it is tender and swollen, and I have a rash that looks like eczema on the sides of my fingers. My question is could I have got HPV or syphilis from the massage places I visited? I'm really worried. I haven't had sex with anyone else since 2017.

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

28 months ago

Welcome to the forum. Thanks for your confidence in our services; I'm happy to address these issues.

You won't find nearly as much "contradicting information" online if you exercise care to limit searching to professionally run sites (like academic medical sources, public health agencies, and the like) or professionally moderated websites (like this one), and avoid those run by and for people at risk or general information resources (like reddit and many others). Anybody can write anything they want on the internet, and information can be complete BS even on many seemingly authoritative sites.

Nobody ever gets HIV or other STDs from hand-genital contact or massage. Even when genital fluids are used for lubrication, such infection transmission is very rare, if it occurs at all. In theory it could happen for those infections transmitted primarily by skin contact, like HPV, herpes and syphilis -- for example if genital fluids are used for lubrication. However, even this carries little or no risk. Obviously billions of such exposures occur worldwide every year, and yet there simply are no scientifically validated cases of STDs, including HPV, being transmitted by such contact. For example, among hundreds of thousands of annual visits to public health STD clinics in the US, I am aware of no reports of anyone proving to be infected who had not had overt vaginal, anal, or oral sex.

Having had no other sexual exposures than the two mentioned above, there really is no need for worry and no need for testing for any infection. It's just not an issue for you.

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

HHH, MD

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27 months ago

Is there any possibility that the encounter could have resulted in HPV? I have since gotten married and my wife had a positive high risk HPV result. Neither of us have had sex with anyone else in 5 years. She is now questioning if I have been faithful. Thank you for all that you do!

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

27 months ago

There is no risk of HPV from massage and no possibility that your wife's HPV infection is related to that event.

It is common for HPV to be diagnosed by Pap smear years after acquiring it, usually due to reactivation of a distant past infection. Assuming your wife had at least a few sex partners before you became a couple, of course she was infected with HPV; 80-90% of all people acquire HPV at least once. Equally likely is that you have had your own genital HPV infections from your own past sexual exposures before your marriage; so it's also possible you experienced reactivation of a past infection and transmitted it to your wife fairly recently. Of course neither of these scenarios implies either of you has had other sex partners since you have been a couple. Your wife might discuss this with her gynecologist. She will have had lots of experience with abnormal paps in exactly this same situation.

In other words, newly diagnosed HPV is not the same as newly acquired infection. If it is true that neither of you had had other partners since you were a couple -- then reactivation of a prior infection in one or both of you is the only possibility. You did not acquire HPV during your massage.

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