Hi there,

Let me see if I understand your question correctly. I think what you’re concerned about is that you touched a surface that had blood or body fluids on it, didn’t wash your hands, and then put your fingers in your own vagina several hours later.

It’s really really uncommon to get any kind of sexually transmitted infection this way. In particular, HIV will die after a few seconds outside the body, so it would not be on your hands several hours later. Hepatitis C can live longer outside of the body, but it is still very very unlikely to get Hepatitis this way.

We always advise washing your hands after touching blood or body fluids, but I don’t think there’s anything to be worried about in this situation. If it would help to reassure you, you could get tested 3 months after this happened, but I really don’t think you need to worry.

If you want to know more about your chances of getting STIs from different kinds of sex, you can look at these charts on the website.

Leave us a comment below to let us know if this answers your question.

Health Nurse