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Hi Terri,
I was hoping I could let this go but it doesn’t seem to be the case. My anxiety is pretty high and I don’t know what to do.
I’m a 28 years male. 11 days ago, I had a brief encounter with another male that consisted of me sucking and licking his testicles for no more than 5 minutes and lightly kissing (more like a peck as I didn’t put his penis inside my mouth) the head of his penis at the very end. All of this happened in the dark. I regretted it immediately after it was over. 3 days after the encounter, I met this guy again, I wanted to see his genitals in the light and look for any sores/abnormalities. At the second encounter, I touched his penis and balls with my hands, he had some pre-cum, and so I came in contact with that as well (with my hands only – I never put his penis inside my mouth). There were no signs of sores or anything like it on either his balls or his penis, except this almost vanishing mark at the very tip of his penis. (I can’t say what the mark was or if it was even there. I could have been normal or a product of my imagination. I have been really freaking out ever since this happened).
Now my anxiety is in full gear and I can’t stop thinking about every worst case scenario. I have read so many articles online and visited many forums trying to rule out every possible STD that I could have gotten for these encounters but it doesn’t seem to help. My crazy thoughts even make me wonder about HVI.
I have a few questions that I’m hoping you could answer to put my mind at easy at least until I can go get tested.
1. Could I have contracted HSV2 or any other STD (I already have HSV1 – I’ll ask you about that in a minute) from these encounters? If so, would the HSV2 or other STD (Syphilis, gonorrhea, etc.) show on my mouth or could it show up on my genitals too?
2. As I mentioned, the second time, I came into contact with some pre-cum on my hands. I put hand-sanitizer as soon as it was over and washed my hands with soap and water a few times too. Could any STD have “survived” on my hands? I went to bathroom approximately 30 minutes after it happened to urinate.
3. For the past 2 years, during my annual check-up visits, I had asked the doctor to do a full STD check-up, including HSV. Both times, he has ordered the “Specific AB, IGG type 1 and 2” tests from LabCorp. Both times, my HVS2 results have been <0.91 which is interpreted as negative according to the lab report. My HSV1, however, was 6.91 high the first time and 43.00 high the second time. The tests were taken about a 1.5 year apart 2014 and 2015). Is there any meaning to the increase in the index value for my HSV1? Do you think it could have been a typo?
4. I have never had any outbreaks anywhere (at least not that I can remember) but again based on the testing I guess I am a carrier for HSV1. Could outbreaks for such begin at any point?
5. For HVS2, in order to contact HSV2 on my genitals, I would need direct skin-to-skin contact with the virus, correct? In other words, my genitals would need to touch other genitals and/or a mouth of someone who is HVS2. I couldn’t develop HVS2 on my genitals if my only contact with someone was my mouth on their genitals, right?
6. Do you have any advised on STD testing based on these encounters?Thank you so much for all your help.
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I am going to preface this by saying I will never say never in this sort of situation, OK?
1. Could I have contracted HSV2 or any other STD (I already have HSV1 – I’ll ask you about that in a minute) from these encounters? If so, would the HSV2 or other STD (Syphilis, gonorrhea, etc.) show on my mouth or could it show up on my genitals too?
I think this encounter contains as close to zero risk as you could get. The skin of the scrotum is actually fairly thick and if you are worried about herpes in particular, unless there was a specific lesion, I am not concerned about asymptomatic shedding. As for the other STI’s that risk is also just not here.
2. As I mentioned, the second time, I came into contact with some pre-cum on my hands. I put hand-sanitizer as soon as it was over and washed my hands with soap and water a few times too. Could any STD have “survived” on my hands? I went to bathroom approximately 30 minutes after it happened to urinate.
No
3. For the past 2 years, during my annual check-up visits, I had asked the doctor to do a full STD check-up, including HSV. Both times, he has ordered the “Specific AB, IGG type 1 and 2” tests from LabCorp. Both times, my HVS2 results have been <0.91 which is interpreted as negative according to the lab report. My HSV1, however, was 6.91 high the first time and 43.00 high the second time. The tests were taken about a 1.5 year apart 2014 and 2015). Is there any meaning to the increase in the index value for my HSV1? Do you think it could have been a typo?
I"m not really sure what to make of that, except to say that both are firmly positive values. I doubt it was a typo, but if you are concerned, you could double check. I don't think it matters actually - as I said, both are firmly positive values.
4. I have never had any outbreaks anywhere (at least not that I can remember) but again based on the testing I guess I am a carrier for HSV1. Could outbreaks for such begin at any point?
Yes, of course, and without symptoms you cannot know if your infection is oral or genital.
5. For HVS2, in order to contact HSV2 on my genitals, I would need direct skin-to-skin contact with the virus, correct? In other words, my genitals would need to touch other genitals and/or a mouth of someone who is HVS2. I couldn’t develop HVS2 on my genitals if my only contact with someone was my mouth on their genitals, right?
Correct, exactly.
6. Do you have any advised on STD testing based on these encounters?
I honestly don't think you need any testing. And those who know my advice vs. others is always to err on the side of more testing rather than less. In this situation, I don't advise testing at all.
Terri
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1. Is it possible (I guess almost anything is possible, but I mean given your expertise) for someone to contract HSV2 through the mouth where like in my case, there was no genital contact whatsoever, but develop an HSV2 outbreak on the genitals instead? Have you ever seen a case like this?
No. The virus stays in the nerve group in which it was acquired. For the mouth, that is the trigeminal nerve group.
2. I’ve never given much thought to my HSV1 results. I have read that most people have antibodies for it anyway, and as mentioned, I have never had an outbreak. Would you advised to look further into it and perhaps go on medication to avoid any “potential” outbreaks?
I don’t think you need to go on medicine to avoid potential outbreaks. You either have it orally or genitally and if you ever get a suspicious outbreak anywhere you can have it swab tested. 56% of the US population has HSV 1 antibody between the ages of 14 and 49. Very common.
3 Based on what I have told and in your expert opinion….can you tell me that there is nothing to freaking worry about from these encounters and to just move on and live happily ever after? 🙂
I think you will live very happily ever after, yes.
Terri
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Five weeks is not certain, but again I got back to the encounter which is really really low risk. By 6 weeks, 70% of people who are going to be positive will be positive, so again the odds are on your side!
I don’t know what to think about your HSV 1 antibody result – clearly you are positive. Have you ever had a cold sore in your nose or mouth? If you have then we would know the location of your HSV 1 infection for sure.Terri
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Lots of people are full of “what if’s” so you are not alone. We don’t have numbers for 8 or 9 weeks but you can test as often as you want to test – each time you are negative, the odds are improved more, right?
No, the index values have no meaning at all. We do worry about the lower numbers only because they could mean 1) that you are in the process of seroconverting (becoming positive) or 2) it is a false positive or 3) that is just your index value and there is nothing to make of it. It is not better to have a higher or lower index value, no, but higher ones just give us more certainty.Terri
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So glad your test was negative, that’s great news.
1. When testing for Herpes, is it necessary to always test for both HSV 1 and 2 to get an accurate result? Would testing for only one of them impact the results in any way? My doctor didn’t think it was necessary to order another HSV 1 test because we already know that I have antibodies for it, so she only order a “HSV Type 2 Specific AB IgG” exam which again came back negative.
That’s fine. Most times, it is the same price to test for both, but there is no benefit to testing once you know you are positive.
2. As I mention before, I’m positive for HSV 1 based on previous IgG exams. I don’t remember ever having a cold sore on my lips, face, etc, so there is no way to know if the HSV1 is oral or genital. If I ever get a suspicious outbreak on my genitals and I have it swab…would the results be positive even
if it wasn’t herpes because on my existing antibodies?No, if the swab test is positive, that’s means that lesion is caused by that particular virus.
Terri
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