CanadianGuy2012

Then again, I suppose the entire "(h) Opportunity" is all about becoming a better person by rising above the temptation of lust and casual sex. Unfortunately those things are some of the few things that make life worth living. You only live once, so I'm making the best of it. I have GHSV2, I don't carry condoms because there no more casual G/G sex for me, I'm not going to give anyone HSV. Other kinds of sex are still on the table.

Oh well isn't that wonderful......that way we can make sure we all stay mired in the muck of self-pity for the rest of our lives. Sorry but IMO this makes abolutely no sense. Disclosing is the key to what? Everlasting happiness? I suppose I also have a moral obligation to tell a girl who wants to sit on my face that I have GHSV2? Even though it's totally irrelevant? While we're at it maybe me shouldn't even make out with anyone because it's possible we scratched our balls earlier in the day, transferred Herpes to our fingers, then scratched our nose and are now shedding HSV2 on our face now and we're bound to give it to anyone we kiss. Better watch those tears too, I'm sure they are just full of the herpes virus, gonna have to start washing my hands every time I touch my face now. Time to take a step back for a reality check........get real. Take the appropriate steps to control what you have and where you have it, and then get on with enjoying life. All this sadness, regret, and self-pity will just make you permanantly miserable :(

So you are getting genuine cold-sores that you have confirmed via swab test as HSV2? and have tested negative for HSV1? I find that extremely difficult to swallow. Many blogs are written by people who are living with so much fear and regret about HSV that much of what they write is based on assumptions. Go check out posts from nurse Terri Warren on the Medhelp experts forum and you will see just how rare, if not fictional, some of these cases really are. Occular herpes is 99%+ type 1 and even that is extremely rare. I'm not washing my hands any more than I usually have, my mind is grounded in facts, not fears. When the time is right a girl with GHSV2 is more than welcome to sit on my face any day of the week :)

What does everyone think about receiving oral if you have GHSV2? With no OB and no prodrome. There are no documented cases of oral HSV2, only people who say they didn't have any other type of sex and tested positive on a blood test. Docs who specialize in this field for years laught at this and say they have never seen a postive OHSV2 culture. Many say it's a myth. If we need to disclose maybe it would be just as well to get a tattoo on our neck or something........

Dude the people you spoke to on the phone didn't have a clue, but hey that's pretty normal anyways. I got a herpesSelect 4 months after contracting this (first OB 3-4 days after contracting it) and the test was negative, so some people can take a very long time to seroconvert. If she has cold sores she can give you GHSV1, you shouldn't let her give you oral while she has them

There's nothing solid on Lysine. Some say it helps, others don't, some say it makes things worse. Folk science I guess. Only the antivirals have proven to be effective. I feel fairly confident I can tell most of the time I'm shedding, of course I'm just guessing.

People can shed without breakouts, but if a person does have regular outbreaks they usually have prodrome before the outbreaks. In that case, almost all the shedding occurs at that time, so dating a person who is aware they have it is pretty safe. If antivirals are used it usually reduces shedding by 50%, which is considerable.

BTW, are you sure you don't have herpes? If you haven't been properly tested, with a modern IGG blood test, you don't know for sure. Lots of people never have symptoms. Food for thought.

I can give you a bit advice on the HSV side of things. It isn't going to tell you what to do but it might help you figure out your odds so this isn't always on your mind. Is it type 1 or 2? Does she get breakouts and does she get prodrome before they start? If she has GHSV1 just go ahead and forget about it, it rarely sheds so the odds of passing it on are minimal, if she's up for antivirals you chances of getting it are next to nothing. If it's GHSV2 and she gets prodrome then she will likely know when she might be contagious, just be careful and again, you likely won't get it. I got if from a girl who never has BO's, still doesn't know she has it, most people get it from people like this. Even from a girl who doesn't get prodrome, if she uses antivirals and you avoid sex during breakouts, no regular use of condoms, you odds are a mere 1-2% per year of contracting it. If i was in your position and the girl is worth it, I would definitely go for it :)

nmo27, you do know that people are 15x times more likely to catch HSV1 from someone who has it orally right? So for anyone who has sex, like a proper round of sex, with an HSV1 positive person, is taking 15x times the risk with the person who has it orally than with you. Lots of people are aware that 3/4 of the population has oral HSV1, yet people will jump right into bed (or just make out with them) without giving it a second thought. Ironic to say the least!

HaHaHa hot tubs! Good one.......ever hear tell of the big hot tub at Desire Resort in Cancun? You get like 40-50 naked people in there at once somtimes, our girls just sit on the edge and only put their feet in. If you could catch (h) from a hot tub everyone there would have it LOL! Seriously tho, I think the stigma will be broken when we pass the 50% infection rate. The way GHSV1 is growing I don't think that day is too far away.......

Hey my province in Canada does not do ANY blood testing for herpes! They say it doesn't tell you where the virus is, is not accurate, and is not worth anything to the health system considering how expensive it is. I have to drive to the US to get a proper test. That's bullshit tho, tests like the Quest Herpesselect are very accurate (95%+), although if you score between 1 and 5 without ever having a positive swab it's not considered definitive. If you score above 1 and you get a positive swab you're considered positively positive.

It scars on my penis too, on the top where the skin is thin and smooth, the skin is a different colour when it heals, I suppose over time it will fade. Polysporin will definitely help the healing, once the sore has dried up by all means use it, or whatever else you have in mind for the purpose.

Sorry Dee, I know this discussion isn't why you came to this board. Regardless, I will clarify my point, do you think everyone who had gotten a cold-sore in their life should disclose before having sex? If so, do you think this is a reasonable expectation? If not, how is GHSV1 and different than OHSV1? Three-quarters of everyone on planet earth has HSV1. Those who have it on their face are the ones passing it on genitally in more than 97% of cases, yet for anyone who has it on their face it's "just a cold-sore". Stop and think about that. This being said, I don't have type 1, this isn't an issue for me, but I just think society needs to rethink Herpes 1 and it has to start with us. Food for thought.

Three quarters of people have HSV1, most have it orally (on their mouth) where they shed the virus around 15% of the time. Those who have it genitally shed the virus 1% of the time, unless they are one of the unlucky few who get recurrent outbreaks, then it becomes a slightly different situation. But in our society we consider oral HSV "just a cold sore" and nobody mentions it prior to having sex, and that's considered totally acceptable. On the other hand, those who have GHSV1 are for some reason expected to have "the talk" before having sex! Why? They are more that 1500% less likely to transit the virus! I'm calling bullshit on this one. This is a huge double-standard that is perpetuating the (h) stigma. Sorry if I offend anyone by saying this, but if I had GHSV1 and was outbreak free I wouldn't tell anyone. It's everywhere.

The actual study results from the University of washington: Frequency of Subclinical Shedding of HSV Of the 110 women, 56 (51 percent) had at least one day of subclinical reactivation of HSV. Subclinical shedding of HSV was identified in 36 of the 65 women with HSV-2 infection (55 percent), 16 of the 31 with both HSV-1 and HSV-2 infection (52 percent), and 4 of the 14 with HSV-1 infection alone (29 percent). Overall, subclinical shedding was documented on 2.0 percent of the days in women with genital HSV-2 and 0.7 percent of the days in those with genital HSV-1 (Table 1). Among the women, shedding occurred on 0 to 35 percent of days sampled (Fig. 1). The rate of detection of subclinical reactivation reflected the number of days on which samples were obtained. Sixty-three percent of the women who provided specimens for up to 60 days without having lesions never had subclinical shedding, as compared with 39 percent of the women who provided samples for more than 60 days. Table 2 shows the rates of subclinical shedding for 64 women who provided samples for at least 60 days. The 60-day duration of sampling was selected to eliminate both falsely low and falsely high rates of shedding due to short periods of sampling. Thirty-five of 54 HSV-2–seropositive women (65 percent) had subclinical shedding during a median sampling period of 106 days (range, 61 to 425), whereas 19 women (35 percent) did not have viral shedding despite a median sampling period of 97 days (range, 63 to 307). Eleven percent had shedding on more than 5 percent of the days on which samples were obtained. The rate of subclinical shedding was similar in the HSV-2–seropositive women and those who were seropositive for both HSV-1 and HSV-2. Virologic Characteristics of Subclinical Shedding Subclinical shedding occurred on 32 percent of the total days when viral shedding was detected. Of the 128 episodes of subclinical shedding, 96 (75 percent) lasted for one day, 18 (14 percent) for two days, 7 (5.5 percent) for three days, and 7 (5.5 percent) for four or more days. The durations of clinically recognized and unrecognized episodes of viral shedding are shown in Table 3. Analysis of the data with use of an alternative definition, according to which days without culture results were treated as positive, revealed a similar pattern; 70 percent of the episodes of unrecognized shedding of HSV lasted one day, 15 percent two days, 4 percent three days, and 11 percent four days or longer. Subclinical shedding occurred at all the anatomical sites sampled. The rates of isolation of HSV from cultures of samples obtained on days when genital lesions were absent were 0.7 percent for the vulva, 0.7 percent for the cervix, and 1.1 percent for the rectum. Nineteen of 56 women who had subclinical shedding (34 percent) shed the virus from more than one site on the same day. The HSV subtype was the same on all days on which HSV was isolated from more than one site. Shedding from more than one site occurred on 32 of 186 culture-positive days (17 percent). The most common sites of dual shedding were the vulva and cervix, which accounted for 19 days. Other episodes of shedding from multiple sites involved the vulva and rectum (nine days), the cervix and rectum (two days), or all three sites (two days).

====== Women ====== On page 11, there is a direct discussion of the question you pose, which starts off by discussing the more common genital HSV-2: "Transmission of HSV during periods of asymptomatic shedding has been reported in several case studies,[11,12,19] but one of the first studies systematically to examine asymptomatic shedding followed 27 women with recurrent genital herpes.[20] Asymptomatic shedding was detected in 80% of those followed for more than 50 days and overall the virus was shed asymptomatically on 1% of days.[20] Another study found that 65% of women shed HSV on days without genital lesions. Asymptomatic shedding occurred on a mean of 1.7% of days sampled, although 11% of women with HSV-2 shed asymptomatically on more than 5% of days (Figure 10).[21] In this study, using viral culture to detect HSV, asymptomatic shedding accounted for 32% of the total time when viral shedding was observed. The majority of clinical and asymptomatic episodes of viral shedding lasted for 1 day, but 25% lasted 2 or more consecutive days.[21]" Figure 10 on page 12 seems to directly answer your question, showing for a group of women, the percentage of days on which they had asymptomatic shedding of virus for both HSV-1 and HSV-2. The authors go on to compare shedding in HSV-1 and HSV-2 on pages 12-13: "The frequency of asymptomatic shedding of HSV from genital sites is significantly lower in women who have acquired HSV-1 compared with women who acquired HSV-2 or both HSV-1 and HSV-2. Koelle et al(1992) demonstrated in a prospective study that the frequency of asymptomatic shedding detected by culture was more common during the first 12 months after first-episode genital HSV-2 infection (3.3?4.3% of days) than in the 12 months after first-episode HSV-1 infection (1.2% of days [Table 4]).[22]" On page 13, an additional study is cited that gives a frequency of asymptomatic shedding on 1.7% of days (women) for HSV-1: "Another study has documented culture-proven asymptomatic shedding on 2.0% of days in women with genital HSV-2 and 0.7% of days in a cohort of women with genital HSV-1.21 The rate of asymptomatic shedding was similar in HSV-2 seropositive women and those who were seropositive for both HSV-1 and -2." These results are based on viral cultures. More recent data from PCR (polymerase chain reaction) show that these rates are likely even higher, but more work is needed to determine the clinical significance of these findings. You can read more on pages 13-14 in the above reference. ==== Men ==== Interestingly, there is less data available for asymptomatic shedding in men: "There are much less data on the frequency and pattern of asymptomatic shedding in men despite the fact that the efficacy of transmission appears to be greater from men to women.[18,28] The evidence available suggests that asymptomatic shedding is similar in men and women, being documented from the urethra, urine and normally appearing penile skin.[29,30] HSV has also been isolated in the semen in the absence of discernible lesions.[31,32] The rate of asymptomatic shedding in men is about 2.2% and the penile skin is the most common site of asymptomatic reactivation.[33] Asymptomatic shedding in men also shows clustering and can occur before and after a symptomatic episode.[33]"

Duh, well sorry about that! When I read girl I figured it was a child LOL! I'll shut up now hahaha....... I'll try and find where I read that figure. Sorry.

GHSV1 only sheds 1% of the time with most people and is very very rarely passed on. You girl is perfectly safe, if you have it genitally it isn't like you child would be putting her hands in that area anyways right? BTW I think something like 1/3 of kids already have HSV1 anyways.

I hear you, I also come from a very small town in Atlantic Canada. I'm married and we both have HSV2, so the dating thing isn't an issue for me. I have at least ten friends in town (that I know of) with HSV2, and they never seem to have issues with partners. BTW, take a look around your town, every 5th person you see walking down the street also has HSV2. One girl is extremely popular, she got it when she was 18, and everyone in town found out. I guess there was a few years of stigma (I was never in her shoes), but she got over it, is in her mid-20's now and like I said quite popular. Being beautiful helps I suppose. To some extent I guess some people do say "Oh she has THAT", but there are lots of guys still chasing her. In the 6-7 years she's had HSV I have never heard she gave it to anyone. She's a bit of a butterfly, always discloses, and it hasn't slowed her down. One of the guys is now 35 and has always been a total man-whore, he gave it to two classmates where they were in high-school, both girls got it within a few weeks of each other and had only been with a couple of partners so they are certain it came from him. Yet in this province with no blood testing for HSV, he always denied he had it, and continued to bang as many chicks as he could (I'm guessing 40-50 in a town of 4000) and you never heard of another girl getting infected from him. Nobody ever even mentions his name and H in the same sentence anymore. As far as I know, of all these cases, after each of them found out they had it, none passed it on in town. You know how small towns are, word would leak out, at least about one here or there, but nothing. So that's been my experience with small-town Canada and HSV2, it really isn't as bad as you think. You really do have to "play the field" and not limit yourself, once you have the talk some will go but some will stay, those are the ones you want anyways.

Hey I wasn't saying It's bad to take Lysine, just that there are only a couple of short studies done in the late 70's/early 80's that found it effective. All the studies done recently were inconclusive, as far as I can tell. It might be the holy grail for some people, just that science has not been able to prove it yet. But IDK if anyone is really trying. Most of those sides are probably listed as side effects for Aspirin too. Seriously, can you find a drug that actually has any benefit that dos NOT have a scary list of side effects? Like the TV commercials where they read the side effects at 200 words a minute at the end LOL! Acyclovir has been used to treat HSV for 20 years now and no serious permanent side effects have been documented. Valtrex for 15 years now, same thing. Sure, some people don't tolerate certain drugs, so it's understandable that they would not be right for THEM. For anyone to read the list of possible side-effects of a drug and say "Oh my God I will never take that" is silly. Millions of people use them for suppressive therapy. I'm not any kind of expert. I just wanted to make the point about the Lysine theory. I just ordered four bottles myself last week, but looking at all the data on it now, there's no reason for anyone to get too excited or panic that they need to get Lysine ASAP. My two cents :)

As we talked about recently there is L-Lysine. The idea is that by raising Lysine levels you are effectively lowering Arginine, which is thought to increase outbreaks, so by keeping it low you will reduce OB's. Some say it helps, some say it doesn't. There are a few positive studies but most are from the late 70's or early 80's. I wasn't able to find anything recent that had real positive results. So many different opinions about this, best really to google it yourself and see what you think.

This Lysine thing has no evidence of working, in fact I think they tried it in small study and found zero results from it. Just sayin'

You wanna see the future? Here's the way I see it, I figure in a few more years the percentage of 20-40 year-olds in North America with Genital HSV1 is going to double. Think about it, 70-80% have it and those who have it orally and are active are bound to give it to someone genitally. I mean, who doesn't go down on their partner these days? People with genital HSV1 will probably soon be the MAJORITY.

HaHa that's sounds like what happened to me a couple weeks ago! I wasn't actually going to "get some" but I was in a nightclub and the opportunity was there for the easy taking, and I certainly was tempted. I did have the prodrome in mind the whole time, then I started to feel something a little different later in the evening. I went to the bathroom to check it out and sure enough, three spots on a red area. Guess it wasn't just a coincidence! Thanks for sharing.....