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Worried about oral sex
#19561 - 07/20/01 09:56 PM
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The other night I really messed up. I am a bi-sexual male. I received unprotected oral sex from someone whose HIV status I did not know. I found out later on that he had been with dozens and dozens of other partners. A few people have told me that I really have nothing to be concerned about. Is that true? If I should get tested, when is the earliest possible time that I could get tested to at least ease my nerves a little? I would appreciate any and all info.
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Hi,
Your risk in this case was extremely low. Remember, there are no cases of transmission through saliva due to low concentrations of the virus and possible inhibitory factors in the saliva itself. There is a theoretical risk of transmission if your partner had visible blood (bleeding gums, etc.) or an open wound, but again the risk is much lower than that of unprotected vaginal or anal sex, or even performing oral sex.
If you can, try to wait until 3 months have passed to get tested. That will give you an accurate result, especially since you probably do not even need to test in this case. I know it is very difficult to wait, but I also believe it's harmful to test repeatedly within the window period (say at 1 month, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, etc.) - it can take a real toll on both your physical and mental health. Many people here have taken the PCR DNA test at 4 weeks (or more) after exposure, and that has helped to ease their minds, but in your case I would not recommend it since there was no real risk of infection. The best advice I can give you is to put the incident out of your mind and focus on other things. If it's still concerning you, test at 3 months and then you can forget it :)
Copper
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call the gmhc hotline 1800NYCAIDS
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Kind of unusual for me to disagree with Copper, but I sort of do here, at least about testing.
* The activity you describe is EXTREMELY low risk for HIV infection. That one single incident carries a real-world risk of practically "0".
* On testing early: I think it's a GOOD idea, as long as you don't QUIT testing until the window's up. If we can accept the assertion that 90 - 90% of infected people test positive, with 3rd gen. Elisa tests, at the end of 4 weeks, then I think testing NEGATIVE at 4 weeks is a wonderful thing. So is testing NEGATIVE at 6 or 8 weeks. However, like Copper, I will tell you that 3 months is a necessary finish line if you're going to use antibody testing.
Me, I couldn't wait that long, so I went out and sprung for the PCR DNA test at 5 weeks. My real world risk factor wasn't much higher than yours, I just needed to prove it out a little sooner than 3 months.
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