The Condom Broke When I Was With A Sex Worker… Could I Have HIV?
Cathy: So someone wrote in and said, “I was having sex with a sex worker and the condom broke. I pulled out immediately and I didn’t ejaculate so does that mean if she has HIV, I’ve contracted it already? But I was penetrating when it broke. I’m really concerned.”
I am here with Reid Mihalko from https://reidaboutsex.com/
Reid: Cathy Vartuli of http://theintimacydojo.com/ is sitting directly to my left. Great question. Thank you for being really thoughtful about you know noticing that the condom broke, withdrawing quickly, not ejaculating all those things. I am not a doctor nor do I play one on television. I did play an evil male nurse in a soap opera a long time ago and that is actually true. You can be exposed to something and not contract it so you can you know
Cathy: If she had HIV which
Reid: Well again
Cathy: she might not have at all
Reid: let’s…let’s assume that that that this person does have HIV the way that they shared it.
Cathy: Oh, he said he didn’t know.
Reid: Okay, so again here’s and you do your own research but this is how it breaks down: one, you can be exposed and not contract certain things; two, you can go get tested
Cathy: You have to wait, there’s a quick test and a longer test
Reid: Do you want to share more?
Cathy: No, okay sorry.
Reid: No, you go right ahead. You want it
Cathy: If it’s something that’s making you really nervous, you can get there’s a test like I believe it’s after two weeks or week? Or we’ll tell and the other one you have to wait up to six months to…to find out if you were exposed directly contracted to them.
Reid: So here’s what I would do because what we’re generally talking about right now is peace of mind and a lot of people have anxiety about STI’s and STD’s. Go get tested just immediately because that will if you have the wherewithal to go get tested and you can afford it there’s some testing services where you can get your test results back
Cathy: Really fast
Reid: in you know two or three days, you can go to a free clinic and get tested and they’ll usually do a rapid HIV test and so you’ll know immediately whether you have HIV right then and there. So what can you do to take action to calm your brain so you can establish immediately what your status is right now then there are and you can do your own research because there’s always new meat tests coming out where you can take a test that can detect whether you have HIV, the antibodies and whatnot I believe it is…yes like a two-week window and then the traditional test the way it used to be was you wouldn’t know for six months because the antibodies wouldn’t show up enough for that particular kind of test. So this is where for me why I tell people get tested several times a year because then if there is like the six month window, you’re still getting tested a couple of times each year so if stuff if you test positive or something you know sooner than later and also getting tested regularly while it might be nerve-wracking especially if you’re going to a free clinic and it’s going to take two weeks for them to get your results that can be nerve-wracking. Once you’ve done that kind of thing for couple of years, it might be nerve-wracking but you’re more used to that kind of nerve-wracking so it’s actually a little less nerve-wracking.
Cathy: It’s less scary.
Reid: If you say nerve-wracking several times it starts to not sound like you’re using the wrong phrase.
Cathy: Yeah
Reid: So…so these are the things to find out you know the other thing you can do depending on your relationship with the sex worker is you can ask them to go get tested so they can tell you what their status is.
Cathy: Right and just because someone’s a sex worker doesn’t mean they have HIV, it doesn’t mean anything like that and anytime a condom breaks it might be useful to get tested…you like if you’ve been exposed it may not be HIV but you might be exposed to something else so it’s…it’s usually they call it a full panel or there’s a there’s eight common types of STI’s or STD’s that you can get tested for so just because some of the sex worker doesn’t mean they have anything in particular but anytime you’ve been exposed if that’s a concern it’s good to get tested
Reid: Yeah
Cathy: for the whole gamut
Reid: So these are like the basic protocols or…or next action steps and you’re also trying to take care of your own like mental well-being around being nervous or anxious, odds are it’s not the end of the world. Congratulations on being an adult and needing to…to put on your adulting pants and then go deal with STI’s and…and a condom broke.
Cathy: Yeah and congratulations for using the condom, that’s a very good thing.
Reid: Yeah so go get tested, researched different windows for different kinds of tests, also get tested for chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis those things as well you know ask for a full panel if you can afford to go get tested and pay for it you can get tested faster or maybe your health insurance covers certain things and there are free clinics available you can go to my website https://reidaboutsex.com/ click on any of the articles and then in the side bar there is a thing that the CDC has set up where you can find free testing clinics in your zip code or go to https://www.cdc.gov/ and maybe do a search for STI by zip code or something like that or free clinic zip code and it’ll probably pop up.
Cathy: Yeah
Reid: Alright, I could be wrong but the CDC has a great website for that kind of stuff.
Cathy: Yeah, great. Thank you so much for asking, we hope this helped.
Reid: Good luck!