1) If someone touches my genital region with their hand and then puts their fingers in their own mouth is it possible they contracted HSV 2 or HPV?
I think the chances for transmission of HSV-2 in this scenario are very low. The virus requires a certain volume to infect another person and I think that there would unlikely be enough volume in the situation you describe for that to occur. Also HSV-2 does not like the mouth and though it can infect the mouth it doesn’t happen as often as one might think. HPV on the other hand is less discriminating about where it lives. People can carry HPV under their fingernails for example. We don’t know if it is transmitted from fingers but studies have shown that it can be in places we really don’t expect to find it. When you mentioned that you had HPV, did you have the kind of HPV that made your Pap smear abnormal or the kind of HPV that caused an external genital wart?
2) If someone touches my genital region and then goes to the bathroom (a man or woman-I have been with both) is it possible they contracted HSV 2 or HPV that way? Women tend to have a barrier with toilet paper and men don’t, so I thought I’d check on both genders.
I think in this scenario that you describe it would be unlikely once again for herpes to be transmitted in this way. If a woman touched your genitals and then used the bathroom you’re right there is toilet paper normally between her hand and her vagina. With man the same is not true but again we go back to the notion that transmission of herpes requires a substantial quantity of virus to infect another person.
3) If someone touches my genital region and then masturbates him/herself is it possible he/she contracted HSV 2 or HPV that way? Here I figure the gender probably doesn’t make too much of a difference, but if it does, it would be important for me to know.
Of the three situations that you describe, I think the third situation presents likely the most risk for transmission. However even in this situation where someone touches your genitals and then touches their own genitals still need to consider the volume of virus that might be transmitted. I think this is true of either a male or female in the situation with you. Once again HPV is probably more likely to be transmitted then HSV just because the virus is so common and so many people have it and it appears to be less picky about where it goes that herpes is.
As more people are vaccinated against HPV of course, the risk of infection goes down in the general population. We are already seeing in both Australia and the United States a significant drop and HPV infection in young sexually active adults. I can tell that you are worried about low risk situations and you’re trying to figure out what sort of sexual situation is safe for you. I would ask you are you taking daily antiviral therapy? If you aren’t, I think you should consider doing so to reduce your infectivity to others as well as reducing your worry in these situations.
You have to more questions to ask me so please feel free to do so
Terr