Clarification needed please!

[paranoid2011]

I am a 25 year old male, I have never had a cold sore on my mouth or genitals.
Today, I received oral sex with a condom on from a very high risk female.  Quickly, I noticed some type of sore on the girls lower cheek/chin area. Looked very much like a cold sore, but not on her lips directly.  I have thoroughly searched these forums, and fully understand that protected oral sex is exceedingly safe, and that masturbating with saliva is supposedly not a significant risk for contracting Herpes. However, there is not much discussion about saliva while someone has active cold sores, so-  My question(s) are:

a.) Does Oral Herpes ever show up an inch or more away from the lips?  Could this sore have been something entirely different?  She had makeup over it, so its difficult to say that it looked exactly like a cold sore, but it was definitely suspect.

b.) Assuming it was in fact a cold sore, what is the risk that her saliva that touched the unprotected base of my penis, was carrying Oral Herpes?  Does it truly require direct contact or friction to get infected, or is the saliva enough?

c.) Does saliva have to touch the actual sore for it to carry the virus, or is it active in saliva whenever a sore is present?

d.) what is the risk of contracting herpes if this sore did brush up against my pelvis, scrotum?

Thank you very much for addressing these concern individually.

[Terri Warren, RN, Adult Nurse Practitioner]

If your significant other has cold sores and gives you oral sex, then you are/have been at risk of acquiring HSV 1 from her.  You could certainly have HSV 1 and have no symptoms, yes.  I would say that your SO giving you oral sex on a regular basis is a far greater risk than this very brief contact with someone else.  A little saliva has a very little risk.

Terri

[paranoid2011]

Thank you very much.   I will indeed get the baseline test. One follow up question-
As I stated previously, I have never developed a cold sore on my face,  however, my significant other of 7 years does. On rare occasions, once every couple years or so, she gets herpes cold sores on her lips.  We have been careful not to kiss on these occasions.  However, what are the chances that I have picked up the virus from her at some point anyways?  People do shed the virus still when they don't have visible sores right?  Is there a good chance that I do indeed have HSV 1, but just don't show the symptoms? As you said, this would greatly diminish the present risk of contracting herpes on my genitals.  

Also, the  saliva that did drip on me was pretty minimal, does this reduce the risk further, or is any hsv 1 saliva at all a risk?

Thanks again for your response!

[Terri Warren, RN, Adult Nurse Practitioner]

If, in fact, it was a cold sore, she could also be shedding virus from her mouth as well, yes.  Cold sores can show up on the chin/cheek.  Saliva can carry HSV 1, yes, if virus is being shed from inside the mouth (that happens as well as on the outside of the mouth).  Direct contact is a much more effective means of transmission than simply saliva "dripping" down the shaft of a covered penis to the base.  I think your chances of infection are extremely low.  If you develop sores at the base of the penis within 2-10 days, you should definitely have these evaluated.  Some people in your situation might choose to get a baseline HSV 1 infection now, simply to see if you are already infected with HSV 1.  Then you would know that your risk of acquiring it genitally is even lower than the extremely unlikely that I quoted earlier.

Terri

[paranoid2011]

???