Nurse,
What do you think in relation to what Jackmeoff and others have said about `not losing sleep` over the broken condom? Obviously, people in this situation have to get tested, but what are the risks in terms of gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphillis, etc, and other diseases besides HIV?
Hi Sean
It is impossible to work out the exact STI/HIV risk as so many factors would need to be looked at.
If you have unprotected vaginal intercourse there is always a chance that an infection could spread. It really is an odds game of how many people are infected, what type of sex you are having and how infectious is the disease.
In regard to the infections you mentioned for your particular case of a once off broken condom, the odds are so much greater that you would not be infected with any of the diseases you have mentioned. Out of that list chlamydia would probably be the biggest risk just given the amount that is in the population.
Other infections such as genital warts and herpes can spread even with condom use so I’m not sure how a broken condom would affect that risk. Just remember that there is good evidence that condoms will reduce the risk of herpes and warts. As these are transmitted by skin to skin contact there would still be some risk of transmission even with condom usage.
About “not losing sleep” this is an individual thing as one event may cause you anxiety were the exact same thing would happen to another person and they would not even think about it. This is related to risk tolerance were it is good to work out what type of sexual experience you can have that will not cause you to get worried afterwards. As discussed above for a one time occurrence there are greater odd of not being infected. If the condom was breaking once a week this would really change your risk.
If you are concerned about a steady partner the best thing you can do is to avoid sex for a week and go get tested. This would be accurate for the gonorrhea and chlamydia.
Here is a link to a thread we did on condoms breaking.
https://perb.cc/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=44070
Does this answer your question?
Please feel free to comment or ask us to expand on a topic. Remember if you would like to ask me a personal question just send me a PM.
HN
www.stdresource.com