A service provided by the BC Centre for Disease Control
In the years since SmartSexResource launched, we have developed a library of questions asked by you, and answered by our expert sexual health nurses.
Our answered questions library cover a broad range of sexual health topics and common questions we hear at our clinics.
Hi
Your sexual partner would need to have an STI for them to be able to pass one to you.
What could happen is they have a negative test but end up having an STI (we call this a false negative test). It’s also possible they could have an STI that was not tested for.
The two situations that can come up in regard to testing accuracy are the window period and the quality of the sample. I can give you some example in regard to this. Window period is the time it takes for an STI to show up on a test after it has passed to someone. Say you have a partner who had a previous sex partner and gets a test a couple of days after having sex, in this case their test would be done too soon and most likely would not pick up an STI if one had been passed to them.
Quality of the sample is also another factor, say a test for chlamydia was done but the person had just urinated before doing the test or a swab sample was not taken well enough or from the correct place e.g. a test was taken from the genitals but they actually had the STI in their throat. These examples show how someone can have an STI but a test may have showed a negative result.
The other example is if a test for a certain STI was not done or it’s not possible to do one. For example someone comes into our clinic with no symptoms and gets a routine STI screen. At our clinics a routine screen for someone without symptoms would include gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, HIV and maybe hepatitis (depends on risk and vaccine history). This means that a person could have a common STI like herpes simplex virus (HSV) or human papillomavirus (HPV) and not know it. Currently we have no test available for HPV testing in our clinics. There are HSV blood tests available that can be helpful in certain situations but are not good screening tests so we do not use them for routine STI testing.
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any further questions or concerns.
Health Nurse
Hi
Let me know if I got this wrong but is sounds like the condom slipped off while you were having vaginal sex.
The concern would be if you came in contact with any vaginal fluids when this happed, I could see that depending were the condom was when it slipped off that your penis may or may not have come in contact with vaginal fluids.
It sounds like you have been really safe with using condoms for vaginal/oral sex and going for STI testing on a regular basis. As it is possible that your penis may have come in contact with vaginal fluid I would recommend going in for a STI test, as this would be like having unprotected vaginal sex in terms of risk. In terms of the chance of something passing this is hard to know as it really depends if the person has an STI in the first place, even if they have an STI it is never 100% that it will pass the one time you have sex.
STI like chlamydia and gonorrhea usually show up in a urine test by 2 weeks so it best to wait at least 2 weeks before getting tested unless you develop symptoms e.g. discharge from penis, hurts when you pee, sores on the penis etc.… Blood tests that check for STI like HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B usually show up by 6 weeks on a test but can take up to 3 months to get a final result.
Given this I would recommend waiting 2 weeks before getting a STI check and then go back at 6 weeks to repeat the blood test. I would also consider getting the hepatitis B vaccine if you have not had it already. We know it can be a stressful for some people when they have to wait to do a test and then wait for the results. If this is happening for you, let us know if you need any help or support during this time.
In terms of using condoms in the future having a condom that fits better (feels comfortable and you can roll it down all the way) can decrease the chance of it slipping off and we also find that some people like using a female condom if they are having a problem with a male condom fitting.
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.
Health Nurse
HPV is a skin-to-skin contact STI which means that it is possible to transmit the virus to your partner during sex. It is important to note that there are more than 150 different types of strains of HPV, and only a few will cause genital warts. This means that you don’t necesarily need to have a wart to have HPV. Rest assured that HPV is quite common and our immune systems typically clear this virus out in most individuals on average 1-2 years (This may vary on your immune system and HPV strain). If you want to minimize your risk factors of transmitting HPV I recommend using a condom to and avoiding skin to skin contact when a wart is visible.
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns
Health Nurse
Hi, thanks for your question. Asymptomatic shedding can occur in both men and women. If you both have the HSV2 virus, then you dont pass it back and forth between each other so your shedding will not trigger an outbreak for your partner. Things that can possibly trigger an outbreak for her would be a lot of friction during sex causing the genital skin to be stressed making an outbreak more likely. Anything that stresses her immune system can also bring on an outbreak. Outbreaks can be triggered by a serious illness, by stressors like someone she loves being sick or losing a job and by being run down with not eating well, not getting enough sleep etc. In general people with genital HSV 2 do tend to have more outbreaks. If you partner is getting more than 6 outbreaks a year, she may like to try suppressive therapy. Her doctor can prescribe a low dose antiviral that is taken daily and will reduce the amount of outbreaks. There is an updated handbook in the herpes resouce section of this website that you and your partner may find useful: https://smartsexresource.com/topics/herpes-simplex-virus-genital-herpes
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.
Health Nurse
Hi, thanks for your question. You are right. Passing sex fluids from one person to another through fingering and/or touching genitals is a way to transmit STI’s like chlamydia and gonorrhea. The low STI risk nature of mutual masturbation is based on only touching one’s own genitals.
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.
Health Nurse
Hi, thanks for your question. Expired birth control pills can keep working but they may not work as well. When the birth control pills are expired, manufacturers can no longer guarantee that the drug isn’t deteriorating and that the pills will be effective contraception. Because of this, taking expired birth control pills may result in an unwanted pregnancy. You can use the expired pills until you can get a new prescription but in the meantime a back up method of birthcontrol like condoms is recommended. If you do have unprotected sex while using expired birth control pills, then it would be recommended to use Plan B the emergency contraceptive pill to prevent a pregnancy.
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.
Health Nurse
Hi, thanks for your question. STIs are not transmitted by vaginal blood contact on fingertips or hand or skin. Because you wore a condom, you can be reassured the tip of your penis was protected from contact with vaginal fluids and the girl can be reassured that her vagina was protected from your sex fluids.
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.
Health Nurse
Hi, thanks for writing in with your concerns. Your mom did the right thing by reporting the needlestick and going to the hospital for the recommended testing and immunizations. Transmission of HIV is rare with needlestick injuries. This is because that HIV dies quickly when the blood in the needle is cold and dry. Hepatitis B and C are more likely to remain making it possible to transmit them this way. Now that time has passed ( best right away or within 72 hours) to take the 28 days of antiviral drugs, it is recommended that she do the routine follow up testing. So that would mean testing now to know her own current HIV status ( as you said this was done at the hospital along with hepatitis A, B and C screening) then testing at a month ( the new 4th generation HIV test will cover this) and then at 3 months to be sure. In the unlikely event of HIV being transmitted and the HIV test is positive, then the first steps are redoing the testing to be sure there is not a lab error, checking HIV viral load and immune system markers, connecting with a doctor who is an expert in HIV care and starting on HIV medications right away, and also connecting with support like peer navigators. Usually this would happen within a week of finding out HIV positive result. If your mom lives in British Columbia and has health care coverage, then her testing, visits to doctor and if needed, HIV medications are free. Because of early connection to care and medications, people with HIV can now live normal healthy long lives. As you already probably know, HIV is not transmitted by kissing or hugging or sharing food or clothes.
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.
Health Nurse
Hi
Our clinic is focused on Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) so we don’t recommend that people come to our clinic just for a head lice check, but if someone is at our clinic for something that is STI related and concerned that they may have head lice we will check that for the client.
If someone was concerned that they may have pubic lice our clinic would be a good place to come for a check.
Let us know if this did not answer your question or if you have any more concerns or questions.
Health Nurse
Hi
There is some evidence that people who have a short frenulum could see improvements in premature ejaculation times if the frenulum is removed.
It seems with you there could be a change if you tear your frenulum. It probably depends on how much of the frenulum was damaged and if you had a short frenulum to begin with.
I am unsure of your particular situation for example did you tear your frenulum and notice a difference, are you concerned about premature ejaculation and wondering if removing the frenulum would help etc…
If you were a client at one of our STI clinics I would recommend that you speak to your family doctor about this and that they would probably refer you to an urologist (a specialist).
Premature ejaculation is a common concern for many people and there are a range of different causes and treatments. It’s important to see a health professional with experience in this area so that they can recommend a treatment that would work for you. Let us know if you need help finding a health professional in your area.
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.
Health Nurse