Touched eyes after removing condom?

[wrongsideofthesheetsParticipant]

Hello Terri,

I removed my condom (with vagina fluid on it) and washed my penis with only water. Then a few minutes later I removed my contact lenses from my eye and realized I messed up. I have to touch my eye to remove the lenses, but I think I only touched the contact lenses and not the eye itself. Is it possible I could have spread to my eyes? My partner’s HSV status is unknown, but I definitely think she is high risk.

Is it possible that I could spread HSV to my eyes like this?

[Terri WarrenKeymaster]

I think that situation is not likely to transmit herpes to your eye but I can’t tell you that it is risk-free. You should just be observing your eyes for 2 to 10 days and see if you get anything am normal going on. I doubt that you will but it’s worth just keeping an eye on things

Terri

[wrongsideofthesheetsParticipant]

Pun intended? Haha

What symptoms should I look out for? I woke up this morning with discomfort in the bottom lid of the eye.

[wrongsideofthesheetsParticipant]

I also have HSV 1 orally. Will it protect me at all from the possibility of getting a new strain in the eye? Also can you get HSV 2 in the eye, or is it only HSV 1 ?

[Terri WarrenKeymaster]

If you have HSV 1 orally, that virus is living in the trigeminal nerve which has three branches, the top one of which innervates the eye. So ocular herpes is already a small possibility though not common. Either HSV 2 or HSV 1 can infect the eye though because of the innervation of the trigeminal nerve, HSV 1 is a more common cause of ocular herpes. And since you have HSV 1 already, it MAY reduce the chances of you getting hSV 2 orally. That has not been well studied yet.

Terri

[wrongsideofthesheetsParticipant]

So in this case, will the existing HSV-1 protect me if I rubbed my eyes with a different strain of HSV-1?

[Terri WarrenKeymaster]

Yes, it should

Terri

• This reply was modified 4 weeks ago by  Terri Warren.

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