GHSV2 and now wondering if it was O as well....

[Hereforalongtimnotagoodtim]

Hi everyone, 

I was diagnosed with GHSV2 this year in March. Since then I’ve gone through a lot of the general forums here, reading comments and becoming as knowledgeable as possible. Something that’s been bothering me relates to what I’ve been reading about OHSV2. When I initially became infected I got very sick. My first visit to the doctor was concerning what I thought was a UTI. Then the next morning I had pussy tonsils, overall feeling of sickness, as if I had the flu, I was sneezing like crazy and was very congested so I went back worried that I had strep throat. The doctors didn’t suspect it was step from looking and based on my congestion but thought it was either bacterial or viral and prescribed antibiotics in case. Then days after this visit I started developing the tingling feeling where my lesions appeared genitally, and so the third doctor visit and the swab confirmed that I had GHSV2.  So since this time, I’ve assumed that either my other symptoms were related to the herpes or that I was also sick with something else because around this time I wasn’t taking care of myself so my immune system was likely down. But now I am concerned that my symptoms in my throat may have been due to the fact that I acquired the infection there as well. It’s causing me a lot of stress because my boyfriend is aware of my status but I’ve told him it’s genital and not oral. I haven’t had any lesions around my mouth or in my mouth. At the time of my infection I was obsessed with checking my throat because I was trying to see how long the infection would take to disappear and I did notice that there were three bumps maybe the size of lentils on the back of my throat but I assumed they were cankers or due to the irritation around my tonsils and the doctor didn’t say anything about them. But now I wonder.... Is there someone here who has any insight into this? Is there anyway for me to figure this out without there being any symptoms there at this time? I am planning to go to the sexual health clinic in a few weeks to see if they can shed any light. I’m not sure this all matters that much since I already have it in one place anyways! But for some reason it’s giving me that gut-wrenching anxiety I had initially with my genital herpes. I feel I’ve finally come to terms with that and now here’s something new that I’ll have to deal with...

[tiredandlonely]

Unfortunately there is no way to confirm that you have oral HSV-2 without oral symptoms. If you get a cold sore or lesion, you should see a doctor to have it swabbed. The only way to test for herpes in the absence of symptoms is by a blood test and a blood test will only tell you that you have the HSV-2 antibodies, it can't confirm the location of the infection. Since you already have gHSV-2, there wouldn't be a point in getting a blood test.

As I'm sure you already know, oral HSV-2 is quite rare. HSV-2 also sheds and reactivates very infrequently in the oral cavity, so even if you have the infection there as well, you may never have symptoms. 

My advice would be to put this out of your mind until you have oral symptoms. If you have oral symptoms, get to the doctor and have the lesions swabbed.