Autoinoculation? Please Read.

[Tx0000]

I feel stupid for asking this. But is it possible to infect yourself with genital herpes if you have oral herpes?

For example, lets say I had my hand in my mouth and then immediately touched my scrotum and penis with saliva on my hand, is it possible to give myself genital herpes? Even if I rubbed my skin a little with the saliva on my hands?

Also, during sex, it's obvious that condoms don't protect your scrotum, so could you catch an std from body fluids getting on them?

Thank you.

[Jhw5454]

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to tell you my experience.  In my early 20's I got cold sores. I also bit my nails bad!! My favorite nail to bite was my my right ring finger. One day I got the most painful infection right on the side of my nails bed. It went away, came back. Long story short I had herpetic whitlow. I had autoinoculated myself. No more cold sores, but for over thirty years I have recurrent herpes outbreaks on my right finger which have gradually moved down to the base of my thumb. Children do this all the time if they have oral herpes and suck their thumbs. So it might be uncommon but it happened to me!

[WorstLotteryEver]

I'll throw my experience in here too. I've had oral HSV-1 for something like 30 years, since I was a kid. Despite that, I recently acquired an HSV-1 genital infection (diagnosed via culture) after having protected sex using a condom with a partner who had what turned out to be an active HSV-1 genital infection (diagnosed via PCR).

So while these things may be "unlikely" they are not "impossible" and there is a big difference.

[gracefromHHP]

if you have questions about your own situation, as we've asked you previously by all means start your own post about them.


I'm not sure if you are misunderstanding autoinnoculation vs normal ob's patterns or just what. You are not going to spread herpes all over your body - this isn't "comforting advice" , it's sound science dear. Please do not come here trying to spread fear to others with erroneous information.

grace

[petal130]

Only a swab/culture can diagnose if symptoms are in fact herpes.

As well, you can read over and over again in the experts' forum variations on this topic. Here's one form Dr. Hook:

"Welcome to the Forum. We get many questions about the possibility of auto-inoculation.  When people get herpes, they develop an immune response which has many consequences including more rapid resolution of lesions than at time of your primary outbreak and helping your body to resist spreading the infection to other parts of your body on your hands.  Person experiencing initial outbreaks rarely transmit their infections to other parts of their bodies before they develop immunity and this sounds to have occurred with you.  Subsequently however, spread through auto-inoculation becomes vanishingly rare.  I have never seen such a case on over 30 years of STD-focused practice and research. "

[IDTB]

I think the point is, your body creates antibodies. It's unlikely that you will 're-infect' yourself in another part of your body if your body already has antibodies built up as a defense.

The herpes virus doesn't act let's say, like poison ivy, which is your skin having an immediate allergic reaction to plant sap. That's a form of contact dermatitis which can spread to other parts of the skin. But a virus entering your body and becoming a part of the cellular structure of your nerve system and replicating itself is not the same thing. Herpes invades your body system and therefore causes your body to produce permanent antibodies to try and fight it. Unfortunately Herpes is able to lie dormant and hide and is also able to out smart the antibodies' attempts to keep it from replicating once it's already inside you. But the antibodies are supposed to be able to prevent any new infections or re-infections to other parts of the body. Because they are like little soldiers patrolling through your entire blood stream looking for any other herpes invaders trying to get in. They are trained to recognize the enemy. That's what they do.

[TiredOfGirlyProblems]

Ok see I always thought that it was possible. Now my question is, you said from personal experience, so are you telling us that you had hsv1 orally and didn't have hsv1 genitally and after years or so you happend to pass your oral hsv1 to your genitals? Also was it confirmed through a swab test that your genital hsv was infact type 1 and not type 2?
Oh and how exactly did you pass it from oral to genital? Oh and how long did it take from the time you actually aquired oral hsv1 until you passed it genitally??? was it days, weeks, years???

[nobodyknows86]

"Comforting Advice" has NEVER singe-handedly prevented a herpes outbreak, you get my drift. It is necessary because it can play an important role in hepling you reduce the amount of stress that you deal with daily, which as you know [stress] can contribute to illness, but to educate yourself is better than taking someones advice about YOUR situation because it will give you peace of mind. I mean after all, it's a kown fact that every persons system reacts differently to the herpes virus, so how can YOU really know until you go see a doctor, even then there are many uncertainties because the nature of viruses in general is so abstract that it's difficult to prevent how your body will react to a condition such as herpes. Really - if you have oral herpes, then you have herpes. Do you think the virus will be like, "oh those are some nice looking vulva, but I think we'll just stay here and keep on infecting these lips." NO- it will spread from the oral lips, to the ***** lips. At which point I don't think anyone gives a care about the difference between oral and genital herpes. Unity promotes understanding, which is a necessary weapon in the fight against herpes. Keep posting questions and be honest with yourself.

[nobodyknows86]

I know from personal experience that herpes can spread to ANY area of your skin. The virus does not loose it's ability to infiltrate a skin cell, regardless as to whether it's the skin on your arm, or your genital area. You can have herpes anywhere; your genitals, mouth, on your back, on your toes, anywhere that you have skin cells, you can be infected. It would be wise for you to take your own necessary precautions as well as additional advice from others. It would be wise to take these and all other questions about herpes to a qualified physician Face to Face. So you can show them what you are talking about and the necessary actions can be taken- NOT educated guesses. If your body could "protect" itself from herpes...then you wouldn't HAVE herpes. If you take someones advice and it turns out to be wrong, that's you that's messed up, not the advising party, I just feel like its worth it to yourself to be safe rather than sorry. Go see a doctor and deal with your situation with the utmost care.

[Tx0000]

Ok, thank you Grace =)

[gracefromHHP]

body fluids are a poor way in general to transmit herpes.

once you have herpes on one body part, it gives you significant protection from transmitting the body to other body parts. If we didn't have this protection, we'd all be covered with herpes from head to toe!

I've asked the mods to move this post to the herpes forum so we can follow up on your questions there :)

[Tx0000]

Neither situations? Not possible?

[gracefromHHP]

no this is not going to happen.

grace