Question about HSV transmission and testing

[snowman888]

Hi!
Around 8 weeks ago I had protected vaginal sex but received unprotected oral sex (I’m a 19 Year old female) from someone who experiences oral cold sores since he was a little kid. He’s 21 now i don’t know if that makes a difference. He did not tell me until afterwards sadly. He told me he hasn’t experienced an active oral sore since January 2020 and we had sex One time August 31st 2020. He did not have an active outbreak a few weeks after we had sex. He told me he’s not on any antivirals or medication for it because he experiences only a few outbreaks a year. However, I question his honesty since he failed to mention his herpes status in the first place. What are my chances that I contracted it orally or genetically?

I also want to mention that when I had an STD panel done they checked If I was shedding for herpes 1 and 2 around 6-7 weeks after possible exposure and it came back negative. I don’t know whether it’s worth doing an IGG test because of the high chance of a false positive or negative. I live in England 🙁 so i can’t order a western blot test from you.

I haven’t had any symptoms of a herpes outbreak. However, I have had BActerial vaginitis confirmed because Of my yellow discharge and smell, but heard it can be misdiagnosed as herpes??? I haven’t had any sores vaginally down there though. I don’t think I’ve ever even had a cold sore on my mouth as a child. I’m also curious that if I’ve been vaccinated for chickenpox and have had mono (glandular fever) could that mess up my IGG antibody results since it’s from the same viral family? Thank you! I’m just very paranoid and finding it very hard not to be anxious about this. I don’t know whether to do a IGG test or not because of the chance of it saying I’m positive if I’m not..or negative if I’m not. Idk what to do. Pls help thank you

[Terri Warren]

Do you mean that they did a skin swab looking for HSV 1 and 2? That’s not very helpful if you had no lesions, especially when looking for HSV 1 which sheds far less often.

I would say that if you are indeed negative for HSV 1 and 2 going into the encounter, and you contracted HSV 1 genitally, you are likely to have experienced an outbreak. Also, a single encounter with a person who has infrequent oral outbreaks and had none at the time is, in itself, unlikely to result in transmission.

If you want to do a western blot, I do them all the time with people living in the UK, particularly London, where there is a woman who has drawn and shipped the blood a few times for people there.

Terri

[snowman888]

No they tested my urine sample for HSV 1 and 2 shedding around 6/7 weeks after my encounter with him. And it was negative. It was included in my STD panel. The same company can test if I’m positive for HSV 1 or 2 but they don’t tell me the IGG levels only if it’s + or -. So idk if I should take it, what are you thougts?

I don’t know if I’m negative for HSV 1 or 2. But my mother told me I’ve never ever had a cold sore as a child, but I guess I could be asymptomatic. That’s why I’m super anxious about this. I just don’t want to wake up one day and find a bunch of sores on my vagina. How likely is it???? I’m constantly looking at my vagina haha. It’s been almost 9 weeks now and I’ve not noticed anything different besides the bacterial infection, which was confirmed as BV in my urine.

However, I want to put this behind me because it’s just not healthy for me to worry. However, if you think there is a chance I could have contracted I’d want to know for future partners. However I live far from London lol so I can’t get access to your friend In London. Considering that it’s been 9 weeks I’ve had no symptoms that I know of, I slept with him once, he has no outbreak before or after seeing me, how likely is it that I contracted HSV1 orally or genitally??? Does HSV1 shed asymptomatically often??? Like if 80% of the population has oral herpes shouldn’t like everyone have it genitally as well? If I didn’t have HSV 1 or 2 before seeing him do you think I would have had an outbreak by now????

[Terri Warren]

Checking for HSV 1 or 2 in urine is ridiculous. People who have herpes only shed virus intermittently, so someone could easily be falsely reassured that they don’t have herpes if the test is negative BUT it only means that there may not have been virus present AT THAT MOMENT in the sample. Just ridiculous! The IgG test would be far better.

I think it is unlikely, given everything you’ve told me, that you contracted herpes at this encounter. HSV 1 genitally sheds infrequently. Only 47% of the US population between 14 and 49 have HSV 1 infection. I don’t know why you think that would mean everyone would also have it genitally. That doesn’t make sense to me.

Terri

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