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Please address my O.C.D. / H.I.V. inquiry.
Jul 13, 2008

I cut myself with an pearing knife last week. The knife left a 3/4 inch cut on my finger. Bleeding stopped withing an half hours time.

Here's the problem.

Just over twenty-four hours later a female friend and I were having a conversation about sex at a party. It was light-hearted in nature. To my surprise though, my friend mentioned that the chat was "making [her] wet".

Mixed in with her laughing she then reached for my penis (over my pants) and asked if I was hard. This was all in fun. Nothing more happened

As a kind of a "you touched mine so I'll touch yours" response I reached for her private area and my hand went up her skirt. I could see that she was wearing panties.

However, a second or two later I felt some moisture on my hand. I couldn't see anything, but my hand felt slightly damp.

It was hot outside so it may have been sweat. However, as somebody who worries (I have OCD), I keep thinking that perhaps it was her vaginal fluid. My friend says I touched her inner thigh but my thoughts say otherwise.

My question are as follows:

1) Does my day-plus old wound constitute an open cut?

2) What's the risk of me picking up HIV given the nature of this situation?

3) Can I let this incident go an move on with my life?

Forgive me if this inquiry sounds silly. I am, however, quite anxious about the entire situation and your professional opinion would be greatly appreciated.

Response from Dr. Horwath

You cannot get HIV infection from touching a woman's thigh or panties.



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