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Diagnosed yesterday


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Hi everyone,

This past Friday I started getting sores inside of my labia. I thought it was from a yeast infection I had at the time. By Sunday they had gotten way worse and I was in so much pain. I went to an urgent care to get them swabbed. Yesterday the results came back positive for HSV1 (as well as a group B strep infection in my urine). I'm taking the news in a "this is the cards I've been dealt, now how do I deal" type of way. The worst part is the pain, burning, itching, and not knowing how I got it.

Hoping someone can help fit the puzzle pieces together. A little background:

The week of June 15th I had casual sex with an acquaintance a number of times. I didn't have sex with him since that week. The last week of June I went on a date that my coworker set me up with and we ended up going on several, several more. By the first week of July we started having sex. We are still currently dating.

This whole summer has been that of weird, painful vagina issues. I've never really had any issues with my sexual health. I went for an STD test on July 1 to test from guy #1 as I usually do if I have a new sex partner. I came back positive for a chlamydia infection. I was shocked, but I took the antibiotics. Both men came back negative for chlamydia (still trying to figure that one out). After that I got a yeast infection from the antibiotics. I got it treated with diflucin and had an allergic reaction with a rash all over my back, chest, and neck. After the yeast infection ended, I continued to have sex with the guy that I am currently dating. After sex I always had a really bad burning feeling inside and one time had post coital bleeding (which has never happened to me). My gyno thought that the chlamydia hadn't cleared itself. So she prescribed me another round of antibiotics for me, as well as my boyfriend. Another yeast infection happened. I used Monoistat since I was allergic to the diflucin. After two weeks, we had sex again, and again burning. This was the first week of August. Another yeast infection started last week and I treated it with Monoistat again. Literally, 2 days after, sores showed up. I thought I was having an allergic reaction to the Monoistat.

On July 14 I got a negative IgG test result: HSV1 .12, HSV2 .14. Guy #1 got tested for both types of HSV during the same time (at my request because I was paranoid) and came back negative for both. After I got the sores, I asked him to retest again and he told me today that he was negative again. He could be lying, but I really don't know.

The man I'm currently dating has never had a cold sore or OB from HSV ever. He was in a long-term relationship for 3 years before dating me and had one sex partner after they broke up in May. He was tested before his 3 year relationship and was negative. I was in a relationship for 2 years prior to these two men and never had any issues. We both had tested negative for HSV during our long-term relationship.

My infection had to have been passed to me from one of these 2 men. Any ideas?

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read and respond.

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It is highly likely that it is your current partner, a primary outbreak of sores bad enough to send you to the doctor means you most probably were infected from oral sex in 2-7 days before the sores appeared. The negative HSV-1 test you have had also supports the recent infection hypothesis.

Your current partner has probably not been tested for HSV and could be a silent carrier like half of people with HSV1-1.

I'd be pretty sure this partner will test positive for HSV-1, something he has probably had since his youth. This is something 70% of the population carry.

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Thanks for your reply, Wilso. He is very aware of what is going on and has been understanding. However, I definitely think that he thinks that I contracted it from the guy before him. When I asked him last night to get a blood test, he said he would. I understand the IgG numbers and timeline pretty well. When I tried to explain to him that if it comes back positive, then he has had it for a while (since we've only been dating a month and a half).. if he comes back negative it means that I contracted it from the last guy (correct me if I'm wrong). He became defensive, thinking that I was blaming him for this. All I want is answers and to make sure I don't give it to him in the future if in fact I'm still the only one with it.

The chances of viral shedding from oral HSV1 are low. How could this happen? Could it be passed through his saliva? You would think that after 27 years that I would have caught it orally from kissing someone! Or at least genitally already. I can't wrap my head around any of this.

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Transmission as adults is freakish. You can be married to a person with oral HSV-1 be sexually active with lots of kissing and there is less than a 50% of transmission!

Transmission is just low odds, a dice game with very remote chances.

Your partner will hopefully reveal some maturity in respect of this shortly.

The infection most probably came from shedding of the virus from his lips. You couldn't see it, but it was there and the rubbing from oral sex pushed it in toward your nerve endings where it took hold.

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    • WilsoInAus
      I really suggest that the best thing is for both you and your boyfriend to obtain the Westernblot HSV test. He has a 50%+ chance of being positive and you have a 50%+ chance of being negative. Only the Westernblot can sort this out for you.
    • WilsoInAus
      Hi @kpn the first thing to note is that it is all OK to have HSV-1 or indeed any HSV type. It is not negligence, it is just being human. Oral HSV-1 is not an STD in the sense that the primary transmission is non sexual and the majority of it occurs between parents to children. If any of your children contracted HSV, you would know it. It wouldn't be a silent infection for children. HSV-2 tends not to shed from the oral region for people who have it there in any event. At age 73, about 80% of the population has HSV-1. There is no reason to believe that your mother isn't one of those people. About half of all carriers of oral HSV-1 do not realise they have it and have no living memory of cold sores as they were infected when very young. The most logical explanation is that your mother has oral HSV-1 from her childhood and that your daughter doesn't have oral HSV. Not that it is relevant to anyone but yourself, but your wife might find she actually has genital HSV-1 having had an untyped swab when she was diagnosed.
    • WilsoInAus
      Hi @Dylan86 and welcome to the website. First note that you cannot pragmatically become infected with HSV-1 from sharing a drink. If you carry HSV-1, it did not come from that episode. As such it is extremely unlikely HSV-1 is the primary cause of your issues. Can the WB miss a HSV-1 infection? Rarely but its feasible in less than 1% of carriers who test with WB. Note that the WB does not have values, it has positive or negative as you say. It is way more accurate than IgG as it looks for all 30+ antibodies that are in your blood for HSV. Could you have HSV-1? Yes it is feasible, but it would be a very old childhood infection. Could HSV-1 be causing your oral issues? No herpes will not cause the burning mouth syndrome you describe. Could some of the lesions be herpes related? It is feasible if you are a carrier. But it is unlikely to be the primary cause of the issues, but its an opportunistic virus that can cause issues when something else is taxing your immune system. The best thing you can do is the PCR test on a oral lesion and that will be pretty definitive. Either way, in summary. I'd suggest there is <1% chance you are part of about 70% of the population that has HSV-1. Further there is less than a 1% chance that herpes is the primary cause of your issues.   
    • kpn
      My wife has had hsv 2 for around 8 years. We have two young children 3 years old and 18 months old. My wife only had one outbreak when she was first infected so we didn't worry too much about passing it on to our children. I understand the risk to be pretty low under those circumstances. I don't believe my wife took antivirals during either pregnancy. My younger child has diaper rashes pretty often and has had what I thought was hand foot and mouth disease. That was going around the daycare a while back. I haven't really given it much concern though.  About a week ago, my mother kissed my youngest on the lips. My kid was congested at the time but they pretty much always are. About 3 days later, my mother developed a cold sore on her mouth. She has never had cold sores in her life and she is 73 and happily married so she is not going around messing with anyone. She pointed to the fact she had kissed my youngest and presumed that is where she was infected. At first I said that's not possible since my child has never had any cold sores but since then I have really started to consider that maybe it is possible she contracted it from my daughter. This has me worried that my daughter does indeed have hsv2 and was shedding in her mouth. Does anyone have any experience with this? I am really losing sleep about this. Two people I care so much about got hsv from my negligence. I am fine if I were to contract it, I am not worried about what others think at this point in my life. I just don't want anyone else to have it. 
    • CHT
      Hello DavidGua.... based on the two pictures, I'm not seeing anything that resembles a typical herpes outbreak.  I am not sure what those spots are on your penis.  Please have a doctor take a look and I'm sure you'll get a proper diagnosis.  Have you ever received an HSV antibody test (IgG)?  Again, I doubt your symptoms are herpes-related but, if you'd like some peace of mind, you could request the IgG antibody test for HSV2.   Best of luck.... let us know if you have any other questions/concerns.
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