Hsv1 oral transmission

[Carmex2]

Hi there. I am female, late 30s, have had cold sores since childhood with very infrequent outbreaks as an adult. I’m talking several years between. I had 2 back to back cold sores in July/August last year, but nothing before that for years. I MAY have had one in March, but it also may have been a canker sore, as it was inside my top lip and was there when I woke up from a surgery where I initially thought it was a cut from an oxygen tube. My sores have never been on my top lip and never inside the lip, so this would have been an atypical outbreak for me. Anyway.

I performed oral on a man who does not have hsv1 for approximately 10 minutes or so. I understand there is some risk of transmitting to him via asymptomatic viral shedding. Based on my history, would your educated guess be that the risk of transmission is lower than if I had more frequent outbreaks? Is 10 minutes enough time to transmit? It wasn’t 10 constant minutes, but mostly. And would having chapped lips at the time make the shedding, if any,more severe? What if I have a scrape on the roof of my mouth, does that shed? What if he caused the scrape due to his jewelry during oral? Would a fresh scrape in my mouth increase his risk of transmission? I have no current outbreak, but did recently have a major surgery and also was on antibiotics for an ear infection so my immune system has been taking a beating lately. Maybe it wants to shed virus while it’s working on other things, I dont know.

I understand that it takes a certain amount of virus to transmit and I understand that’s going to vary by individual. But is 10 minutes of oral long enough to transmit? Asking because I read one of your responses to someone about 10 minutes of intercourse being relatively low risk to transmit and I think that was regarding hsv2,so was curious if you thought the same for 10 minutes of oral and hsv1.

Thanks for your insight!

[Terri Warren]

The more outbreaks someone has, the more frequent the shedding, yes
I doubt that within a 10 minute period, anything that happened would immediately cause shedding to occur. 10 minutes of giving oral sex is long enough to infect someone, yes, but the likelihood of a single incident infecting someone is not high statistically.

Did your partner develop symptoms? Is that why you are asking?

Terri

[Carmex2]

No symptoms for him, but it’s only been 6 days since exposure. He’s not worried about it, but I am. So I was in part just curious if trauma to my mouth would increase shedding. If I was in fact even shedding at the time.

Do things like chapped lips or fresh scrapes inside the mouth have any effect on shedding?

[Terri Warren]

We don’t have data on your question about mouth issues and shedding so I can’t answer that with any real clarity. It’s possible that these events could increase shedding, yes, but I think you’ve got just a few more days to see if he develops symptoms.

In addition, if this man tests negative for HSV 1 by IgG test, there is a 30% chance that the test missed an infection for him.

Terri

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