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Am I overreacting or is there any legitimate risk?

Hello all,

I hope all is well! Last Saturday, I received protected oral sex from another person in a severe lapse in judgement. I wore a condom the entire time and finished via handy-j. My partner then reached in their back pocket and handed me a bar napkin so that I could wipe up with. Almost everything I've read says that I incurred no legitimate risk at all of contracting HIV, but I would truly appreciate the professional opinion of someone in this community.

I understand that HIV does not travel through saliva and that I'm not going to make history as being one of only a handful of people who've contracted HIV via protected oral. However, I'm worried about the saliva that was left on my skin, underwear, and base of my penis after the fact.

Shortly after I finished, I wiped my penis down with hand sanitizer and even threw away my underwear once I reached the nearest restroom! Other than this incident, I have a relatively normal sex life.

I have severe anxiety and have been stressed all week. My allergies along with a slight stress headache throughout the week have really been playing tricks with me.

Rationally, I know that I've incurred virtually no risk through this single encounter, but could someone else offer up some professional insight?

And likewise, how's the anxiety community on this website? Probably going to join. Lol.

Thanks!
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Avatar universal
This answers all of your HIV questions, and if you can think of any more just reread about the 3. You had zero risk therefore  testing is irrelevant to your situation because you had zero risk. HIV is a fragile virus, which is instantly inactivated in air and also in saliva which means it is effectively dead so it can't infect from touching, external rubbing or oral activities. It doesn't matter if you and they were actively bleeding or had cuts at the time either because the HIV is effectively dead.  
Only 3 adult risks are the following:
1. unprotected penetrating vaginal with a penis
2. unprotected penetrating anal sex with a penis
3. sharing needles that you inject with.
The only way to get HIV is if you did one of the 3. The situation you describe is a long way from any of these 3.
Even with blood, lactation, cuts, rashes, burns, etc the air or the saliva does not allow inactivated virus to infect from touching, external rubbing or oral activities. Doctors have calculated the risk from what you describe to be less than that of being hit by a meteor, therefore no one will get HIV from what you did in the next 40 years of your life either. The above HIV science is 40 years old and very well established, so no detail that you can add to your encounter will change it from zero risk.
Reread your own post and delete the word virtually and legitimate so you will be well on your way to moving on.
If you didn't have one of the 3 then you are just worrying about your own hiv theory - which is unrealistic for you to think that can become reality - so you should move on back to your happy life instead.
No one on the anxiety forum knows anything about hiv and will just tell you to take a test, which is the last thing you need to do because it is stressful waiting for the result - even though in your case it would be a placebo test..
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