Is there any risk and shoud I go to the gynecologist?

[Jackie]

Hello, I’m 22 years old women and I never had sex before but I masturbate. I drunk a little too much alcohol three days ago and I'm not sure if I washed my hands or not before fingered myself,mostly because I don’t remember the order of what happened. All I can remember was before I masturbate I saw something in my smartphone and ate a dessert(I remember washed my hands before eat) but i am not sure of which were first. And i know smartphones usually are not clean at all so after I fingered myself I realized that my hands maybe were not clean then I went to the bathroom immediately(I was at home) had pee and took a shower. I’m very concerned and anxious about the fact that my vagina might get some infection if I didn’t washed my hands so there is something I can do to minimize the chance of an infection? What are the infections that I could get ? Shoud I go to the gynecologist and have some test ? Please help me and thank you. And sorry for any grammar mistake because english is not my first language.

[Sam W]

Hi Jackie,

Welcome to Scarleteen, and no need to apologize for your grammar! While it is possible to contract an infection from masturbating with unwashed hands, it's by no means a guaranteed outcome. So it's entirely possible that you won't see any negative effects from potentially masturbating with unwashed hands. Too, if you were to get an infection this way, it's likely to be something like a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) which, while uncomfortable to deal with, is easily treated. As for going to a gynecologist, I would suggest doing that only if you notice possible symptoms of an infection. Those symptoms could include things like feeling a burning sensation while urinating or having discharge that is a very different color or odor than what you usually have. But unless you have symptoms, there's no need to make an extra visit to a sexual healthcare provider. Does that all make sense?

[Jackie]

Thank you for responding so quickly and yes this make sense. I'm kind of relieved now, but I know I’ll have to wait and see if there is any symptom. I also want to congratulate your site because this is the best site I found about sex ed and it is very clarifying.

[Mo]

I'm so glad you've found our site helpful! We always encourage people to wash their hands before masturbating or otherwise touching their own (or someone else's) genitals, but if you forget to do it sometimes, it doesn't mean you're guaranteed to run into problems.