Hepatitis Forums
Hepatitis C Prevention, Transmission and Testing => Am I Infected? => Topic started by: stegasuarus99 on December 11, 2016, 01:09:50 pm
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Hi all, hope you are well.
I am feeling very anxious about a situation that happened. Firstly I am concerned if I may have hep c but secondly I am more anxious and worried that I may have infected my girlfriend if I do happen to have the illness.
The reason I think I may have it is because both my parents have the illness from previous drug use. My mother has since had treatment and is free from the virus now :) But for a long period of time (10 years ago) when I lived with my parents we would share personal items and toothbrushes (this was often like every day because there was only 2 toothbrushes between us all)
I have always had it in the back of my mind that I may have the virus but I have chosen to ignore it :(
My second and big worry is I may have infected my girlfriend. During oral sex, her tooth cut my penis and it was only after she was finished that we noticed blood there and in her spit too. Blood definitely got into her mouth and would have been in there as she was performing oral sex.
If anybody could answer my questions I would really appreciate it, thanks :)
1. how much of a risk am I at of having the virus? I am going to get tested very soon.
2. If I do have the virus, how much of a risk is there that I have passed it on to my girlfriend?
My big worry right now is that I may have passed it on to her :(
Thank you for any advice.
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Transmission of hep c in a household is not common however it is recommend against sharing of personal hygiene items like tooth brushes, fingernail clippers, or razors with hep c infected persons. So yes there is some risk to those types of activities and you probably be infected although the odds are not very high. For example even a health care worker who has an accidental needle stick involving a patient with known hep c the odds of transmission is only about 1.8 % so the odds of sharing a tooth brush would be that much less. But under the circumstances you should get tested for peace of mind if nothing else.
Hep c requires blood to blood contact so if you are infected your blood would have to enter your g/f blood stream so it is doubtful she would contract hep c in this way and there is no evidence of transmission in this way.
Get tested for the antibodies to hep c and if that tests positive you will need a test for the hep c virus itself called the HCV RNA by PCR test. Only if that test is positive will you need treatment. If that test is not detected you don't have hep c. If the antibody test is negative you are done and won't need additional testing.
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Thank you for good insight and advice :)
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Just to update, I recently had a test and found out today it was negative.
Good luck to everyone one these forums and hope you are well.