So like many of you on this subreddit, I had an experience that left me worrying about every little thing my body does. Things that my body usually does that I never noticed became anxiety attack triggers. Hopefully this helps ease your stresses.

So about a month ago I engaged in oral sex with a man I met on Grindr. He seemed well maintained, clean and respectful. He tested negative in May so I didn’t stress much about it. About 18 days later I get this weird tingle feeling in my urethra. This was what set it all off. I began to feel EVERYTHING. This hyper fixation on my genitals caused me to believe I had contracted something. This weird feeling in my urethra was lingering for about 2 days, but only when I thought about it… which was constantly. But if I got distracted by something it was gone. Aside from that I had no other symptoms. No discharge, no painful urination, no throat issues, etc. I’m aware that often Chlamydia doesn’t have symptoms (I had it before with no symptoms) but is rather difficult to catch from oral and Gonorrhea, which is more likely to be caught from oral usually shows symptoms rather quickly so this is what caused me to believe maybe I didn’t catch something… until I felt it. I started feeling actual pain in my urethra and left testicle. This caused me to schedule a test. Sadly it was Friday and the testing site had closed so I had to wait till Monday. But weirdly enough, once I scheduled the appointment, the pain eased up. Enough that by evening it was gone.

Until I noticed these red spots on my penis head. I am uncircumcised so I am used to balanitis. So I washed my tip, applied hydrocortisone and went on my way. Fast forward to yesterday, bumps gone but redness and irritation continues. I start freaking out. I start looking up causes and a majority of results say Balanitis, but we know how our minds are in those moments. We look for the worst possible situations, and that’s exactly what I did. “Holy fuck I have Syphilis… Herpes… the Bubonic plague…?” I started worrying about everything. I had this small cut in my mouth that I was sure was a syphilis sore. Except it wasn’t, it was from a dorito chip I had earlier. Oh and that redness and slight irritation on my penis, hydrocortisone cream is a steroid cream, it can leave your sensitive areas red and irritated for a while.

Well today I got my test results: Negative. On Everything.

So where am I going with this? Your mind is a VERY powerful thing. I had no infection yet I had convinced myself I did. I started to develop symptoms just because I read that I would. I scared myself into believing I was going to screwed for life when all I had was a slight twitch in my peepee. So chill out alittle homie.

That doesn’t not mean don’t get tested. Please Please Please get tested. It will ease up your anxiety and if you do have something you will recieve treatment. No judgement ever. I am still going to go back in 2-3 months just to continue to ensure I’m safe.

I hope this helped a lot of you on here. Try your best not to assume the worst, get tested, and please wrap your willy.