Hey Dr. Bob,

Three and half weeks ago I wrote to you about being a top that wanted to go and explore his bottom side. Well, since that time I've had a sexual encounter that resulted in contracting oral gonorrhea. Of course this could happen to anyone because whether your a top or bottom, mutual oral sex is pretty fun.

Once again, I tried very hard to obtain a solid std history from my new partner and he was very forth coming. Communicatin works! He even mentioned having to deal with a gonorrhea infection several months ago (about 8 months). He stated his HIV status was negative but it had been a couple of months since his last test. Although he was threated, and his gonorrhea test came back negative, he still suffers from prostatitis.

We proceeded to have unprotected oral and protected anal sex and lo and behold, guess who comes down with oral gonorrhea 4 days later.

I've been treated with strong cephalsporins, and my latest throat culture came back negative. However my throat is still sore, there's plenty of discharge back there, and the doc put me on a second round of antibiotics to cover the bases.

What's got me worried is the fact that I'm still experiencing symptoms. I know, I know... symptoms are unrealiable. However this sore throat and low grade fever has been fluctuating on and off over the past 3 weeks from normal upto 100.

Lots of people talk about co-infection with gonorrhea and HIV because gonorrhea increases the number of white cells in semen. But my partner never ejactulated. I know that gonorrhea is considerably easier to contract than HIV, but I gotta ask, could I be suffering from ARS? I'd like to consider myself intelligent enough to deduce that I'm not, but I really don't like running this low grade fever so long. I'm kinda getting worried.

The doc ran a baseline HIV test at 18 days and it was negative. I know its not conclusive, but at least I know my status 100% before the event took place.

So what do you think? Could my fever be a reaction to antibiotics? Could there be a candida problem causing sore throat and fever because of so many antibiotics? I should be better by now, and I'm not. Something to be said for monagomy.

3 month test in my future?

Hello,

I cannot accurately diagnose your condition over the Internet. However, I can tell you that your current symptoms are not suggestive of or worrisome for HIV ARS (acute retroviral syndrome). Assuming the latex condom was used properly and did not break, your risk of HIV would be limited to unprotected oral sex. Oral sex carries a very low risk for HIV transmission. If your partner had gonorrhea (which certainly seems likely), there is an increased chance of HIV transmission (if he's also HIV positive), due to the recruitment of white blood cells at the site of the gonorrhea infection. Do I think this happened to you? No, it remains highly unlikely. If you remain worried, get a single rapid HIV test at the three-month mark. Follow up with your general medical doctor regarding your low-grade fever and sore throat. It may be worthwhile to note that the last case I evaluated of a persistent low-grade fever turned out to be caused by a faulty thermometer, not HIV!

Good luck.

Dr. Bob