gHSV1

[mixedemotions]

I am a ball of mixed emotions and have been for the past few weeks. I was diagnosed with gHSV1 after hooking up with a guy. We had slept together (we used protection) and he preformed oral sex on me, which is how I believe to have gotten it. There were no signs of cold sores or anything on his mouth, and I was unaware that he even had a history of them. It wasn’t until after I got my results from the doctor that I asked him if he had a history of cold sores and he said yes. I’m not the kind of girl to just sleep around, and can’t believe my bad luck after this one encounter. I’m so disappointed in myself. What are the chances of this even happening?
I’ve read a number of your posts and want to thank you for your help to me, and to everyone else going through the similar situations. I’m hoping this post can help to answer a few of the million questions/thoughts running through my mind. I’m convinced my chances of finding a future relationship are over.

– The Dr. mentioned to me that gHSV 1 is less ‘severe’ than gHSV 2. Is this true? I am on daily suppressive medication (1 valtrex once a day), do you recommend taking this amount, or should I just take it upon outbreaks. How often have you seen gHSV 1 reoccurring outbreaks in women?
– In any future relationships, do you have advice for telling the bad news? I can’t ever imagine going through rejection… It would crush me. I feel like I’d rather be alone than risk rejection. I realize it is unethical not to tell, so I would have to… somehow. But if I found out they had HSV1 (say cold sores) would I still have to tell, or would it not be an issue?
– What are the possibilities of a future partner getting HSV 1 from me (genitally or orally) if they do not have HSV 1, if:
o They preformed oral sex on me
o I preformed oral sex on them
o We kissed
o We had sex with condom
o We had sex without condom
– through your research, do you think we are close to ever coming up with a vaccine? Is there any future hope in fully curing this?

Like I said before, I am completely shocked, sad, confused, upset.. the list goes on. I have always thought I was being ‘safe’ by using condoms, and not sleeping around with many guys. To be honest, I wasn’t even aware of the possibility of getting gHSV1 through oral sex. Maybe I was just being naive. It’s unfortunately that people with oral HSV1 don’t think it’s a big deal to pass that information along to their partners. There is such a stigma with having it genitally, which is why I am having such a hard time with this all.
I really look forward and appreciate your response.
Thank you.

[Terri Warren]

I’m so sorry this is a tough time for you but it really does ease a bit as time goes by. I’ll answer these questions for you now.

– The Dr. mentioned to me that gHSV 1 is less ‘severe’ than gHSV 2. Is this true? I am on daily suppressive medication (1 valtrex once a day), do you recommend taking this amount, or should I just take it upon outbreaks. How often have you seen gHSV 1 reoccurring outbreaks in women?

HSV 1 genitally is definitely less severe than HSV 2 – it recurs less, virus is shed less from the body and you can safely have sex with someone who has HSV 1 infection already without worry of transmission.

– In any future relationships, do you have advice for telling the bad news? I can’t ever imagine going through rejection… It would crush me. I feel like I’d rather be alone than risk rejection. I realize it is unethical not to tell, so I would have to… somehow. But if I found out they had HSV1 (say cold sores) would I still have to tell, or would it not be an issue?

Well, you had sex with someone who had HSV 1 and did not disclose. So yes, I think it should be disclosed. I think the best way to deal with this is to ask “have you ever had a cold sore?” and go from there discussing that you have that same virus genitally. It would be good for future partners to be tested, even if they say no because about 70% of those infected with HSV 1 don’t have symptoms and don’t know they are infected.

– What are the possibilities of a future partner getting HSV 1 from me (genitally or orally) if they do not have HSV 1, if:
o They preformed oral sex on me
unknown, actually, no studies on this.

o I preformed oral sex on them
not a risk if you only have this genitally

o We kissed

not a risk if you only have this genitally.

o We had sex with condom
very low risk

o We had sex without condom
low risk

– through your research, do you think we are close to ever coming up with a vaccine? Is there any future hope in fully curing this?

There is certainly work going on on this but I don’t think we are close, not really.

Please feel free to ask follow up question.
And I assume you were diagnosed with a swab test from a lesion?

Terri

[mixedemotions]

Hi Terri,

Thanks for your reply. Correct, the results came back after a swab test from a lesion. Getting the news was really hard for me. It’s somewhat re-assuring to know that a large population carries the HSV 1 Virus. I just am having a really hard time because of the stigma as to the location I have it.

Some follow up questions:

– What type of test would you suggest future partners to get to determine if they have HSV1? A blood test?
– On average, how often do females with GHSV1 get reoccuring outbreaks?
– Do you think it’s important that I’m on daily suppressive medication, or would I be okay with only taking medication upon outbreaks? Perhaps my body hasn’t fully developed all the antibodies as this is still new.
– On average, how often do females with GHSV1 shed the virus?
– In terms of telling the news— do you think it’s a big deal if I prefer not to disclose the location I have it? Like, if I were to share with my future partner that I have been tested and do in fact carry the virus, but would it be wrong to not tell them where I have it? I guess this is the thing that makes me the most nervous of this new news. I wouldn’t want to cause any risk to them catching it from me, however. So if location is important, I would want to be sure to know that.
– People with gHSV1 are able to have a normal sex life? I feel somewhat ‘tainted’ in a way and worried of future rejection.

Thank you for your time.

[Terri Warren]

– What type of test would you suggest future partners to get to determine if they have HSV1? A blood test?
Yes, a blood test. The problem is that the screening antibody test misses 25% of HSV 1 infections. The herpes western blot is a far better blood test but harder to get. Our clinic can arrange that, however,

– On average, how often do females with GHSV1 get reoccuring outbreaks?

The average is about once every other year. Many people never get a recurrence of genital HSV 1.

– Do you think it’s important that I’m on daily suppressive medication, or would I be okay with only taking medication upon outbreaks? Perhaps my body hasn’t fully developed all the antibodies as this is still new.

I don’t think you need suppression at this point, do you? If you have lots of outbreaks or you are having sex with someone who has no HSV 1 then you might go on suppression.

– On average, how often do females with GHSV1 shed the virus?

About 5% of day (so five out of 100)

– In terms of telling the news— do you think it’s a big deal if I prefer not to disclose the location I have it? Like, if I were to share with my future partner that I have been tested and do in fact carry the virus, but would it be wrong to not tell them where I have it? I guess this is the thing that makes me the most nervous of this new news. I wouldn’t want to cause any risk to them catching it from me, however. So if location is important, I would want to be sure to know that.

Tough question. I prefer the direct method though I know it is far more emotional. And genital HSV 1 is way less infectious than oral HSV 1 to be clear. But if the relationship turns into something long term and you had to confess, it might be a challenge at that point.

– People with gHSV1 are able to have a normal sex life? I feel somewhat ‘tainted’ in a way and worried of future rejection.

Oh yes, they definitely do. It would be great to find someone who gets cold sores so even if they don’t know they have HSV 1, they do, and they won’t get it genitally after the oral infection is well established.

Terri

[mixedemotions]

Hi Terri,

Thanks very much for your reply. I believe I have one last set of follow up questions:

– Ive read that there can be complications for women with gHSV1 during pregnancy/child birth. Is this true? How common or severe is this?

– what is the percentage of people who carry the hsv1 virus?

– I’m still having a difficult time understanding what my chances were of contracting ghsv1 through oral sex when my partner was showing no signs of cold sores. Is this a common thing? Were the chances that high?

– why is it that symptoms of ghsv1 are less common than ghsv2? Is that because hsv1 is commonly found in the oral area, so the genitals aren’t where it ‘wants’ to be?

– do symtoms/occurrences of ghsv1 occur less frequently as we get older? If so, do you have the stats for the number of outbreaks that diminish over time (for example… You mentioned once every other year for outbreak reoccurrences… Does this number get even less over time?)

I really appreciate your response. It’s very nice to have someone to talk to and answer questions as people are going through these difficult times.

[Terri Warren]

– Ive read that there can be complications for women with gHSV1 during pregnancy/child birth. Is this true? How common or severe is this?

Complications isn’t how I would describe this, but any woman with genital herpes has a small risk of transmitting virus to their baby at delivery. But you just need to make your provider aware of your situation and proper precautions can definitely be taken to protect your baby. Women with genital HSV 1 and 2 delivery babies safely every single day

– what is the percentage of people who carry the hsv1 virus?

Between the ages of 14-49, 57%.

– I’m still having a difficult time understanding what my chances were of contracting ghsv1 through oral sex when my partner was showing no signs of cold sores. Is this a common thing? Were the chances that high?

We don’t have those statistics, but I need to tell you that I see it all the time. People with both HSV 1 and HSV 2 shed virus from their favorite locations and even their less favorite locations and that virus can be given to another person.

– why is it that symptoms of ghsv1 are less common than ghsv2? Is that because hsv1 is commonly found in the oral area, so the genitals aren’t where it ‘wants’ to be?

Exactly.

– do symtoms/occurrences of ghsv1 occur less frequently as we get older? If so, do you have the stats for the number of outbreaks that diminish over time (for example… You mentioned once every other year for outbreak reoccurrences… Does this number get even less over time?)

Again, I don’t have those numbers. There is far more data on HSV 2 than HSV 1, but on average, HSV 1 should recur about once every other year, if at all, and those numbers do go down over time, yes. My guess is that you will have little trouble with recurrences with HSV 1.

This is your final post on this subscription. If you have more questions, please feel free to renew. I’m always available for you, but I think you are going to do just fine.

Terri

Terri

• This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Terri Warren.

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