POZ Community Forums
HIV Prevention and Testing => Do I Have HIV? => Topic started by: pleasehelpme123 on August 23, 2014, 05:02:52 pm
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Hi Poz team,
Im new to this forum and i just wanted to say you guys are very helpful on here.
My risk was cunnilingus on a female sex worker a couple weeks back in spain.
Now i have read alot of topics from this forum on cunnilingus and it appears you guys all think its zero risk to me and also i should have nothing to worry about with regards to HIV.
I have also read many times Ann's explanation of the obstacles that stand in the way of HIV transmission through cunnilingus, and i just wanted to ask a bit more details on the point about the cervix fluid being infectious.
What i wanted to know is, what if the CSW i performed cunnilingus on had recently been infected by HIV and her Viral load was very high, would this not mean that there is more HIV in the fluids lower down in the vagina? also does it not mean that the HIV is much easier to transmit?
Other doctors away from this site (top medical Dr's) say there is a 1 in 10,000 chance of HIV from performing this activity so there is a minimal risk according to them.
I am very worried at the moment and would like to know if i should relax about this or get tested. It is my only risk since the last time i got tested.
i have had diarrea, head aches, sore throat, and irritation when urinating for the past couple of days
Please advice, i would be so grateful to get an answer from you guys.
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Just because a female is recently infected does not make fluids lower down in the vagina more infectious. One would also have to consider the oral care of the person performing the act.
Do you have meth mouth, or a mouth that's covered, on the inside, with open sores? That would make infection more likely, though not probable. People just do not get HIV from oral sex, especially performed on females.
So, I wouldn't worry. As far as your physical symptoms, we are not doctors, though they are not HIV-related. They are most likely due to you getting stressed. If they continue I would suggest you seeing your doctor.
So, you did not have a risk.
Betty
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Betty is correct . Cunnilingus is not a risk for HIV and where its true that early on in an HIV infection a person can be highly infectious it DOES NOT MEAN a no risk situation becomes a risk . You need not worry about HIV infections from cunnilingus .
Here's what you need to know in order to avoid hiv infection:
You need to be using condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, every time, no exceptions until such time as you are in a securely monogamous relationship where you have both tested for ALL sexually transmitted infections together.
To agree to have unprotected intercourse is to consent to the possibility of being infected with an STI.Sex without a condom lasts only a matter of minutes, but hiv is forever.
Have a look through the condom and lube links in my signature line so you can use condoms with confidence.
Although you did not have a risk and do not need to test for this specific incident , anyone who is sexually active should be having a full sexual health care check-up, including but not limited to hiv testing, at least once a year and more often if unprotected intercourse occurs.
If you aren't already having regular, routine check-ups, now is the time to start. As long as you make sure condoms are being used for intercourse, you can fully expect your routine hiv tests to return with negative results.
Don't forget to always get checked for all the other sexually transmitted infections as well, because they are MUCH easier to transmit than hiv. Some of the other STIs can be present with no obvious symptoms, so the only way to know for sure is to test.
Use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, correctly and consistently, and you will avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple!
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thanks jeff and betty for your replies,
so when you guys say more infectious when a person is recently effected does that mean the fluids i came into contact with are infectious?
Also out of the studies that were done on oral sex, where they done on couples that had the HIV+ on medication? or did this consider high viral load?
im so worried, i cant stop thinking about it day and night because some people say i should go test whilst others say no need to test. Really need some clarity?
Also how big do the cuts or sores need to be in the mouth for the infectious liquid to enter
thanks
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Come on now guy . No risk means just that, no risk and if you had one we would be begging you to get tested . I promise you that no matter how many ways you can think of to ask the question the answer will not change . There has not been one single HIV transmission linked to cunnilingus where there were not significant other risk factors involved . You are not going to be the first guy to go down on a woman and get HIV so give it up already . We ALWAYS assume the other partner has HIV and is infectious when we do risk assessments and that is why I told you that infectious for HIV does not suddenly make a no risk situation into a risk .
Quoted from Ann .
Hiv transmission doesn't stand a chance of happening via female genitals to mouth - there are just too many obstacles on the oral route.
The first obstacle is the mouth itself. The mouth is a veritable fortress, standing against all sorts of pathogens we come into contact with every minute of our lives. It's a very hostile environment and saliva has been shown to contain over a dozen different proteins and enzymes that damage hiv.
Hiv is a very fragile virus - literally. Its outer surface doesn't take kindly to changes in its preferred environment; slight changes in temperature, moisture content and pH levels all damage the outer surface. Importantly, it needs this outer surface to be intact before it can latch onto a few, very specific cell types and infect.
Which leads to the second obstacle. Hiv can only latch onto certain types of cells, cells which are not found in abundance in the mouth.
The third obstacle to transmission this way is having hiv present in the first place. The female secretion where hiv has been shown to be present is the cervicovaginal fluid. This fluid is actually a thick mucus that covers and protects the cervix.
The fluid a woman produces when sexually excited comes from the Bartholin's glands, located on either side of the vaginal opening. I have yet to discover one shred of evidence (and believe me, I've looked) that shows this lubricating fluid to have any more hiv present than other bodily secretions such as saliva, sweat or tears. Saliva, sweat and tears are NOT infectious fluids.
So there you have it. Once the results of the serodiscordant studies started rolling in, what we know about hiv transmission on the cellular level was validated. The only people who were getting infected were those who had unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse. Period. One of the three studies went on for ten years and involved hundreds of couples. That's a lot of nookie.
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Thanks for clarifying.
i just had one question, how does a case get documented?
if someone is infected through cunnilingus and tells their doctor that this was their only risk, would this be documented?
or would the infection have to take place under an ongoing study? then this will go down as documented
sorry for the last question, i just want to stop worrying about this!
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Thanks for clarifying.
i just had one question, how does a case get documented?
if someone is infected through cunnilingus and tells their doctor that this was their only risk, would this be documented?
or would the infection have to take place under an ongoing study? then this will go down as documented
sorry for the last question, i just want to stop worrying about this!
Some of both I would think . How many exclusive lesbians do you know that have HIV ?
Its not a risk and that is the facts .