Blood taste in mouth during Oral Sex

[jasonmcr2014]

Hi all,

I am a 23 year old gay man from the UK and I limit all my sexual encounters to Oral sex, unless I am with a regular partner where I use a condom and lube for protected anal penetration. I think about the dangers of HIV a lot sometimes irrationally. I get myself checked every six months and research online to make sure I know the most I can about transmission because I feel the more informed you are the better judgements you make.

Because I've researched a lot, normally I would treat unprotected oral sex as a very low to no risk encounter for HIV but not for other diseases. However yesterday I had an encounter that for some reason has just shook me and I need some advice or confirmation that I am practicing safe sex correctly to protect myself the best I can from HIV.

I had oral sex with a guy I've only met twice. I sucked him for about 30 minutes and he was quite rough. I had alcohol previously in the night (this is maybe where my unsettled feeling comes from as I normally practice sex while totally sober) but I wasn't awfully inebriated to the point of being out of control. I still knew exactly what I was doing, but was maybe a little more slow with my decision making. Anyway, I have been suffering from bleeding gums the last few days, it seems to bleed out from the front side of one of my teeth when pressure is applied or I have brushed my teeth. This guy was quite rough and made me gag a lot so I paused to drink some water to sooth my throat and then carried on. I tasted a metallic taste in my mouth part way in to the oral but carried on thinking this was just the taste of the water (we have very metallic tasting water in our house at the moment so this metallic taste did not really seem strange to me) and this disappeared after a while and I thought nothing of it. But then the taste came up again about 10-15 minutes later and this time I had not drank the water. The oral sex stopped and I realised my gum below one of my front teeth was bleeding. I wouldn't say it was bleeding a lot, but enough to see red in my saliva when I spat out and enough to taste it. The guy did not ejaculate and I do not recall particularly noticing any pre cum but I'm unsure if this would make much of a difference. Anyway, because I could physically see the blood and the oral encounter lasted a while this has made me question my attitude towards oral sex. I understand saliva inhibits HIV and the mouth is a rather inhospitable environment for transmission but for some reason I'm playing a lot of 'what ifs' in my head.

My question is, because I saw that I was bleeding during oral sex does this change the situation? Or is oral sex just oral sex? I assume in all the studies I've read that other people have not had the best quality gums too as this is obviously quite a common problem, but I've not really found anything where bleeding gums during the sex have been apparent. Only people worried they may have had bleeding gums, rather than knowing they did.

So does this change the situation? Is this a risky encounter that I should go and try and get PEP for? Or have I worried myself into a whirlwind to the point where I have begun overlooking my own rationality?

Also should I change my attitude towards oral sex in regards to HIV?

[jasonmcr2014]

Thanks Teak. It looks as though I've just got a bit carried away with myself. Thanks for the advice. Have a great day.