Question

Hi, I think what you a doing with this website is great! and extremely helpful!

I recently had unporected anal sex with someone I later found out to be HIV positive. We had anal sex but not for long 3-5mins and neither him or I ejaculated. Afterwards I used a douche.. would that have helped anything? I am very worried and would like to know the risk of being infected by HIV from what I have explained.

Answer

Hi,

HIV can be transmitted via pre-cum. Unprotected receptive anal sex, even without ejaculation, is risky business. Douching is not recommended. It has not been shown to decrease HIV-transmission risk and it could actually increase risk (for instance if trauma was induced during douching).

You will need HIV-antibody testing at both the three- and six-month marks, as your exposure would be considered significant (unprotected receptive anal sex with a partner confirmed to be HIV infected).

Good luck. Hopefully you will learn from this anxiety-inducing episode that unprotected sex is not worth the potential catastrophic consequences and you'll never put yourself at risk again.

Dr. Bob