Oral HSV2, very confusing symptoms, anyone else?

[moonchild]

I was diagnosed with HSV2 about 4 months ago. My symptoms were this: 2 cold sores on my mouth and strange tingly feeling but no outbreak on my genitals. I got a blood test a month later and came back positive. Since then, I've had 2 outbreaks. The next one was the same as the first, tingly numb feeling on my genitals for about a day, and then a cold sore appeared on my mouth. The third outbreak, absolutely no tingly feeling, just a cold sore. My doctor said it's impossible to know if I have genital herpes without an outbreak. I for sure have the virus, and something tells me it resides in both locations on my body. Why else would I have felt the tingling? I'm disclosing to someone that I have feelings for, that I've loved since I was 19, and I don't know exactly what to say, because I myself do not fully understand my condition. Do I say I have oral herpes and MIGHT have genital herpes? Do I say I have both? DO I have both? Has anyone else experienced these weird symptoms?

[mr_hopp]

Hi moonchild!

 

Welcome to our fam!

 

Yes, this is confusing and frustrating, isn't it? As our wonderful forum member WCS says, herpes is a slippery lil bugger. ;)

 

And that would be the clearest thing you can say in your disclosure to this man. You're kind of in a limbo space until you have an actual outbreak. And in the meantime, still treat it like those symptoms you are having are prodrome/viral shedding just to be on the safe side.

 

Did you get your oral cold sores swabbed? Depending on the blood test, there are sometimes false negatives and false positives. (Which blood test did you get?) If you get a swab, you can get a more direct diagnosis. You may have both HSV-1 and HSV-2 (which is what I have). The doctor is right, though. If you have HSV-2, then there is no way to know for sure if you can pass the virus through your genitals unless you actually have a visible outbreak. If you knew where you got herpes from, then you could have an educated guess about which location you were most likely exposed to.

 

As far as my genital herpes prodrome symptoms, they do feel like a tingling and burning sensation, so that may be what's happening with you.

 

Here's someone else in our community who has only oral HSV-2:

http://herpeslife.com/herpes-forum/discussion/2024/oral-hsv-2-throat-problem/p1

[moonchild]

I've accepted that I have genital and oral herpes. Even though I haven't had a genital outbreak yet, I know my body. I've definitely had symptoms that I can't ignore. I know deep down that I do have it. I disclosed my status to the person I love last night. We are broken up, we haven't seen each other in over a year, he's been traveling Europe. I'm going to see him in a week for Christmas, so I was going to wait to tell him in person, but I couldn't wait any longer. After reading "how to" after "how to" to prepare myself, when it came down to it, I forgot everything I had read and pretty much did it all so wrong! I started crying. Said "you'll never want to be with me again." AND THEN, I started off by saying "I have a disease... A sexually transmitted disease.. And I will have it for the rest of my life... Maybe you should move on and find someone else, I don't know. I'm sorry this happened." He started crying. He became kind of hysterical and kept saying he loved me and he wanted to have kids with me, how could this have happened. When I started going into more detail, he stopped me and said "Are you kidding me? It's just herpes?? I thought you were going to tell me you have HIV. You made it sound like you were dying. This isn't a big deal. Thank god." I guess I was overly dramatic, it was my first time telling anyone and I was so nervous. He seems fine with it though. He kept reassuring me it wasn't a big deal and everyone has herpes now.

[WCSDancer2010]

Moonchild... Welcome to the Forum!

 

As much as I hate it that you went through this, I am tickled to death to hear your story. I was actually laughing with delight as I read his response .... what a great guy!

 

Just goes to show that we often make it out to be MUCH bigger than it is... and that once a person REALLY loves you, it isn't a big deal to them. Heck - Magic Johnson got HIV, found out after he was married and had a kid on the way - and all this time later, he's still married, has 2 kids and his wife never got it. So if they can do that, why can't we have a loving, committed relationship with Herpes???

 

Thank you for updating us ... this is sooo important for others on here to read. Please keep us posted. I can't wait to hear about your trip :)

 

(((HUGS)))