Questions regarding recent herpes diagnosis

[Phishphan710]

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and I have a couple of questions I could really use some answers to.I am a 19yr old Male. So, first of all I'm going to give a background on my diagnosis. I have been in a relationship with this girl for 5 months and about 3-4 weeks ago she told me she had some bad news for me. She had been experiencing a lot of pain when she sat down and had flu like symptoms for close to a week, so she made an appointment with her Dr.. Her Dr. checked her out and ran a few tests and it came back that she was positive for genital hsv-1. I am assuming she might of had oral hsv1 since she was younger but the fact that she had a pretty bad outbreak for genital hsv-1 has lead me to think otherwise. And of course with me being an extreme hypochondriac, I freaked out and immediately made an appointment to see my physician. When I went to go see him, I told him the entire rundown of the situation and that I have had quite a bit of unprotected oral and vaginal sex with her prior to her "flu-like symptoms". As soon as she started having pain down there (before either of us knew we had hsv-1) we stopped all sexual acts. My question that I have is how could she have possibly developed genital hsv-1 5 months into our relationship if we have only been with each other? Is it possible that I had it before and didnt know and then passed it to her through oral sex? Or is it possible that she gave it to herself through masturbation? I. I am not sure if I was perviously infected with hsv-1 before meeting her or not. I do not recall getting a cold sore before. What is leaving me so anxious is the fact that I do not know where the virus is on my body. I do not have any visible cold sores, however 2 days ago I noticed my throat was a little red and that I had a few nonpainful blood like spots on my tonsils and was wondering if that is possibly a sign of an active oral herpes outbreak? I have abstained from sex for about 4 weeks now and I havent really seen or felt anything out of the ordinary. About 3-4 days ago however, I started to feel an uncomfortable feeling on my tailbone. Upon inspection, I did not see any blisters or rash, however I did see that the skin in the crack of my butt seemed to be a little pink or raw and that there is a little flesh colored bump looking thing on the skin where my tailbone is located. Me being the hypochondriac I am, I am currently freaking out and just want some peace of mind. When i went to my Dr. he did a swab of some red spots on my genital region and they came back negative for hsv-1 and hsv-2. Does this mean that I have oral hsv-1? I was reading that most of the times a genital hsv-1 infection often leaves the patient asymptomatic and was worried that I may have genital herpes and not know about it. Is there a test that can locate where the hsv-1 infection is on my body? I am afraid that if my girfriend and I breakup that I will pass it to someone else through asymptomatic shedding. Basically Since I know i tested positive for hsv-1 i was wondering how i can find out where it is, and also learn how to reduce my risk of infecting someone in the future. What drives me crazy is that I do not know if i have had hsv-1 for a while or if she recently infected me. Is there a way to find out how long ive had the infection? If i do have genital hsv-1 is it posisble for the infection to only effect my anus? I feel as if i cant have sex ever again and it is ruining my self esteem. Thank you so much for your time!

[ash2018]

Hi there and welcome! If I don't answer the majority of your questions I apologize, I'm on my phone so it's hard to keep track of the post and my response as well as a computer. If you and your girlfriend were both virgins when you met, it is very plausible that you could have transmitted the HSV1 to her via oral sex. 2/3 of the worlds population (yes, you read that right!) have HSV1, per the world health organization. Most of the recorded cases are probably oral, but 50% of new genital herpes infections are due to HSV1 thanks to oral sex. You *can* have oral HSV1 and *never* have a cold sore, just as many carry genital herpes (both strains) and never know because they don't have symptoms or symptoms so mild that they mistake them for something else like an infection, shave bump, ingrown hair, etc.

 

What test did your doctor perform on your blood? Hopefully an IgG! That is the most accurate (next to western blot). If your IgG blood test was positive, you can safely assume you've had the virus for at least a number of months. For most, post exposure, it takes a while for antibodies to form (IgG is an antibody to the virus, not the virus itself). It can take up to 16 weeks post exposure to show up on an IgG test. So assuming neither have been with anyone else, you could have transmitted it to her. If she carries oral HSV1 and has for some time, it's unlikely she autoincoluates the virus to another part of her body. Typically when you have the virus established in one location (like having a history of cold sores) it's not likely to get it in another (genitally), BUT it is *not* impossible.

 

There is unfortunately no test to tell you where the virus is unless you have a swab performed on an outbreak that comes back positive. Question - I'm assuming your girlfriend had a swab of the lesions done which was positive for HSV1, is that correct? If so, did she have a blood test performed as well? Id be curious if her IgG would be positive.

 

I'm relatively new to this - a month and a half in - diagnosed with HSV1. I have some days better than other and trust me, I get the worrying about every spot. I've been trying to treat my body as I did before the diagnosis and use the explanations from before for the things I see - such as shave bumps. I've had the virus for an unknown amount of time, my swab was positive and so was my IgG meaning I've had it for at least months. I got tested when I first met my now fiancé and thought i was in the clear, what most don't realize is standard testing doesn't include HSV. And even if it did, and I came back with HSV1, I probably would have been told to assume it was oral unless I showed symptoms otherwise.

 

Have you read up on the statistics - how common HSV is and transmission rates? I think educating yourself will be the best way to help you feel better. And get back to being intimate with your girlfriend :) there are some great links on this site, here are a couple I can find from my phone

 

https://infogram.com/Everything-You-Didnt-Know-About-HSV-but-wish-you-did

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/herpes/en/

https://herpes.org.uk (Stats are different than US stats because it is UK based, but still a good resource)

 

And lastly, do yourself and your girlfriend a favor and Google Ella Dawson. She is amazing. She has genital HSV1 and is an open book about it. It could help both you and your girlfriend feel better! She's helped me tremendously