Confused

[Summer77]

11 years ago my then husband had what looked like an ingrown hair by his mustache. We had oral sex. A few days later what we thought was an ingrown hair was definitely a cold sore. 3 weeks later I got primary hsv symptoms (single cold sore on genitals, fever, body aches). I got frequent outbreaks until I started taking lysine and exercising. I’m no longer married and hadn’t had sex in over a year. When I did have sex again, I got 2 outbreaks, both a single genital cold sore. I started on suppressive therapy 3 months ago and have been fine. I recently saw my doctor and he told me there was no test to tell if I had hsv 1 or 2. As far as transmission, my doctor said just don’t have sex with an outbreak.

1. Is my doctor correct about blood test and transmission?
I want to live a normal life sexually but don’t want to pass hsv to anyone.

[Terri Warren]

Your doctor is absolutely mistaken. You could have an IgG antibody test and see if you were positive for HSV one or HSV two. I would bet a whole lot of money that you have HSV one because that’s the kind of virus that you get from receiving oral sex from someone with a cold sore the problem is that the IgG test for HSV one misses 30% of infections compared to the gold standard western blot. About half the population of the US has HSV one infection. If you are having sex with someone who gets cold sores, or has ever had one in their lifetime, they are very unlikely to get your genital HSV one. HSV one genital infection is rarely shed from the body and I have not seen personally someone acquire genital HSV-1 without receiving oral sex in the past 2 to 3 weeks. Also, your Valtrex is working to suppress viral shedding and will help reduce transmission for sure.

Terri

[Summer77]

Thank you for your response. Will a partner be at risk for oral hsv1 if they give me oral sex, or is that risk low as well as long as I don’t have an outbreak and with me being on meds? Also, would increasing my dose prior to sex give any extra protection?

If my doctor won’t order a blood test how would I go about getting one?

[Terri Warren]

that risk is very low as HSV 1 is rarely shed from the genital tract. you being on meds reduces the risk even more. You can get an IgG test by ordering it yourself at quest or labcorp. Probably increasing the dose before sex will not help much since the infection is HSV 1 and it is rarely shed anyway

Terri

[Summer77]

Since I went so long without an outbreak but had one after having sex again after a year with no sex, could that outbreak have been hsv2 acquired from a new partner, or is it more likely that it was my hsv1? Also, around that time I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take the acyclovir daily or just when an outbreak occurred so sometimes I took meds and sometimes I didn’t. I don’t know if maybe the up& down with meds left me more susceptible to an outbreak, or if friction from sex caused an outbreak, or if i contracted hsv2.

Does having ghsv1 give me any protection against ghsv2?

[Summer77]

I also wanted to add that in addition to acyclovir 400mg twice a day, I take lysine 2000mg twice a day. Does the lysine help with recurrence and transmission?

[Terri Warren]

It isn’t possible to know for sure if your outbreak was your HSV 1 or new acquisition of HSV 2 without a swab test or later antibody test.
HSV 1 does not give you protection against HSV 2, no.
Lysine, on average, does not help with recurrences or transmission, no

Terri

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