# How Can A Man Get AIDS From A Woman? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 17, 2002, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-man-get-aids-from-a-woman/114538 "2002-06-17T15:33:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-man-get-aids-from-a-woman/114538/1 "2002-06-17T15:33:35Z")
How is it possible for a man to contract the HIV virus by having sexual intercourse with an HIV positive female? Since it involves only external contact, how does the virus get into the bloodstream?? If you can contract it this way, then why not through _any_ type of casual contact??? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-man-get-aids-from-a-woman/114538/2 "2002-06-17T15:35:45Z")
:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Blistex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47774/32.png) [@Blistex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blistex)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-man-get-aids-from-a-woman/114538/3 "2002-06-17T15:50:28Z")
Let me guess, you live in Africa? And no! Raping a virging doesn’t cure AIDS. ---
**Author:** ![Cap\_n\_Crude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Cap\_n\_Crude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cap_n_Crude)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-man-get-aids-from-a-woman/114538/4 "2002-06-17T15:53:59Z")
1. You may have noticed there’s a hole at the end of the penis. It lets urine and semen out, and it lets viruses in. 2. Sexual intercourse sometimes causes tiny abrasions and lacerations on the penis and in the vagina. These tiny wounds aren’t often noticeable, but they’re enough to provide a disease vector. Even a wound from an accidentally yanked-out pubic hair can do it. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-man-get-aids-from-a-woman/114538/5 "2002-06-17T15:58:41Z")
Yeah, the most common way, I believe, is for the virus to pass from vaginal secretions through a cut on the penis. Sexual intercourse isn’t really casual contact, the way touching someone on the arm is…there’s a lot of exchange of bodily fluids. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-man-get-aids-from-a-woman/114538/6 "2002-06-17T16:01:37Z")
True. I was thinking that any virus that went up the urethra would get flushed out before it got up to the kidneys (or wherever) and into the bloodstream. Isn’t the longer urethra the reason men don’t get kidney infections? Wouldn’t HIV get flushed out like bacteria gets flushed out before it can cause any problems?? ---
**Author:** ![Dilbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58f4c7/32.png) [@Dilbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dilbert)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-man-get-aids-from-a-woman/114538/7 "2002-06-17T16:24:29Z")
Men don’t get kidney infections? ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-man-get-aids-from-a-woman/114538/8 "2002-06-17T16:25:59Z")
If the bacteria that cause syphillis and gonorrhea don’t get flushed out, I don’t see why HIV would either. Anyway, viruses are many times smaller than bacteria, so it is possible for them to easily permeate through tissue that would hold back bacteria. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-man-get-aids-from-a-woman/114538/9 "2002-06-17T16:52:12Z")
As a practical matter, it’s very difficult for a healthy heterosexual male to get AIDS through plain old vaginal intercourse with women, even without a condom. When it DOES happen, it usually means that the male already had a venereal disease. Men with sores and chancres caused by other sexually transmitted diseases are at great risk of getting infected through heterosexual intercourse. In Africa, most men who contract AIDS fall into this category. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-man-get-aids-from-a-woman/114538/10 "2002-06-17T17:30:35Z")
Anal sex is the most common vector for AIDS transmission, due to the high number of lacerations it causes in the anus and the penis. This is why AIDS was so prevalent among gay men. (Not sure if it still is or not.) It is possible to transmit AIDS (and other STDs) through vaginal or oral sex but it is less likely. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-man-get-aids-from-a-woman/114538/11 "2002-06-17T17:46:06Z")
I had heard once that there was an Asian variant of the virus which was spread more easily through vaginal intercourse than anal. Can anyone confirm/deny this? ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-man-get-aids-from-a-woman/114538/12 "2002-06-17T18:30:16Z")
[Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/020301.html) discussed the AIDS/HIV risk for specific sex acts in a recent column.