Just burnings ?

[london boy]

I have a relationship with someone who has Herpes. I had the confirmation few days ago. Each time we kiss, and in the next minutes i can feel my lips burning for a few days.

It is not very strong and reasonably disturbing. I don't get any cold sore or typical Herpes symptoms as described in the very well design pages.

As I'm married, I'm worried for my family.

From what I red, it seems I have caugh Herpes and I'm in the 60% who has no symptoms.

How to diagnose Herpes when symptoms are very low. Should I stop to kiss all my friends and family ?

thanks for the feedback.

[Redwood22]

Hey! What is caugh herpes?? Sounds very similar to what I have...

[thiscantbe]

The best way to diagnose herpes in the absence of symptoms is by getting a blood test. They typically will not show up positive until 3weeks-4months after initial infection.

Is it possible that your symptoms are just paranoia? I don't know if I am reading the situation correctly, but is guilt possibly involved? Either way, a blood test is probably the way to go to find out for sure.

As for spreading oral herpes, most of the time you need to kiss people on the lips or the corner of someone's mouth to spread it. It needs direct contact with delicate lip skin and mouth tissue, and it does not easily infect intact (i.e. no sores, cuts, abrasions) skin elsewhere (like the cheeks).

[london boy]

Thanks for this feeback.

I have a small spot inside my mouth. and today it seems to move like a small cut

I still feel tingling and burning all around the mouth.

I will try to do a blood test as soon as I can.

Could you please provide very practical and concret advise on things to do or not.

If I have nothing visible, can i still kiss on the cheek ?

is there any risk of transmission by just kissing on the cheek ?

If I touch my lips but nothing visible on it except tingling and burning and then shake hand, can I spread the virus ?

Thanks in advance for your replies

regards

[thiscantbe]

If I have nothing visible

If you have nothing visible and aren't experiencing any symptoms you have reduced risk of transmission, but you can still shed virus without symptoms.

is there any risk of transmission by just kissing on the cheek ?

As for kissing on the cheek, transmission is not likely, but unfortunately no one can say impossible. The skin on most of the body is normally too thick and provides too much of a barrier for the virus to infect it, and this includes the cheeks. However, if there are any skin imperfections (sores, pimples, scratches, etc), it could make the area more vulnerable to infection, and it's possible to have tiny scratches that might be hard to see. It's also possible that some people are just more vulnerable to the virus.

If you are thinking of your children you probably want to avoid anything if you suspect symptoms, but when you don't you have to balance the small risk of somehow passing H on with the risk of emotional risks of not showing affection to your children. If it were me (and it's easy for me to say this as I do not have oral herpes), I would still kiss my kid's cheek regularly, but I would definitely not kiss if I had even a hint of symptoms.

If I touch my lips but nothing visible on it except tingling and burning and then shake hand, can I spread the virus ?

This would be very rare, again cause hands have skin that is less penetrable by the virus, but dental workers used to catch H on their hands before gloves were commonly used, probably from torn cuticles, etc. A lot of people have oral herpes (maybe 50-80% of adults), and herpes on the hand is rare, so it must not happen much just based on that alone or else everyone would have herpes on the hands.

[london boy]

thanks for your reply. For safety I wash hand often and avoid to touch my lips.

and then I just kiss hair.

It' still tingling (almostevery days and night) but I can't see any of those famous cold sore. my lip is often slightly inflated. it's not that visible but I can feel it and in front of a glass, i can see my inferior lip is slighty bigger than normal.

the tingling is spreaded all over my lips but does not happen all over at the same time.

the most often is the lower part on the right or the upper part on the right. but also in other region all over my lips.

I felt very light fever 3 to 4 times for a few hours and I felt also mild headache.

In fact I had something like a cold sore inside my mouth. it "exploded" in few hours and disappear as it came. It was thin and white and just in the internal flesh of my lip.

During those hours it was paintful but still acceptable. I didn't see any blood.

I think I got herpes but that my immune system is quite efficient so far. I definitly need to do a blood test but I can't find something cheaper than 200 £ for the first consultation and then more for the test... this is in London and this is not cheap...

herpes is definitly a thing you need to learn to live with. it's not funny but it seems that several acceptable path can be found.

I hope you have found your own thiscantbe. Your comment are very helpful. thanks again for that.