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If I have anal herpes, can I still spread it through vaginal intercourse?
Herpes is transmitted by skin-to-skin contact right? I got herpes in my anus, and that's the ONLY place I have ever had an outbreak, and since that part of my body will never be touching someone during sex, does that eliminate or at least decrease my chances of spreading HSV-2? If I have viral shedding, it will only be in that area right? Like I said I have never had any symptoms of HSV-2 outside of my anus.
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
Check out the free herpes handbook at www.westoverheights.com. The virus is shed from inside as well as the outside. So condoms are only about 30% effective in prevention of herpes. There is more skin that will come into contact outside of just the penise.
no it is not. 30% protection on average and that includes males.
5 Comments
30% average is not adequate coverage in any stretch of the imagination. I have spent a lot of time reading about this illness and find it alarming that there doesn't seem to be a way to protect yourself. If your partner has no idea they have anything, either because they are asymptomatic or had a mild un-noticed reaction,(82% fit in this category) and condoms offer little protection, how can you ever protect yourself prior to getting the illness/disease? I have read extensively and this question is never addressed or answered. The only way you know you have obtained the virus is through an outbreak. If your herpes can actively spread through viral shredding, without even the sores making contact, or having no visible sores at all, it seem impossible to protect yourself in any way. This goes against every single thing I learned in sex education or my upbringing. Not even my doctor. Still today they are recommending condoms as an adequate way of protecting yourself. Until recently viral shedding wasn't even known to be happening. I am very frustrated. Doctors don't want to give the blood test because it can be false positive and doesn't tell you where it is on your body. We are in 2019. WTF are we doing with this still being an issue?!!! In addition why is this only known as a sexually transmitted disease? Cold sores, shingles, chicken pox, none of those are sexually passed. Except maybe cold sores which in no way carry the same stigma to genital herpes. The handbook also doesn't say how to adequately protect yourself from the illness PRIOR to getting it! Other than to say not to be sleeping with multiple partners and to pick your sexual partners carefully. That's a joke considering I know several people who went YEARS without any knowledge of having contacted the disease, who abstained for multiple years from sex, and still got it. Please advise if you know something I don't about how to adequately protect yourself from EVER getting the disease/illness.
If you are having sex outside of mutually monogamous, long-term relationship with someone who has tested negative for herpes, there is nothing to 100% prevent you from getting herpes. There is nothing that 100% prevents you from getting anything.
Getting herpes from a one time protected encounter is unlikely, if the person infected does not have an outbreak. It's certainly not impossible, but it's unlikely.
These are the chances you have to be comfortable with if you are having sex outside a long-term, mutually monogamous relationship with someone who is not infected.
I don't know where you live, but it sounds like perhaps the UK, where it is almost impossible to get the blood test. That drives me crazy, as well.
I'm not entirely sure why you have such anger about this. Genital herpes, usually type 2, is only known as an STD because that's how it's transmitted. Chicken pox is transmitted by either touching the lesions, or coming into contact with someone's saliva via the air (coughing, sneezing, etc.). You don't have to have sexual contact to get it - you don't even have to touch someone to get it. Shingles is a result of the chicken pox, and is the same virus. It's what happens when the varicella virus reactivates years later - it's not an exposure to something new.
Cold sores are the same family as genital herpes - oral herpes is hsv1, and genital herpes is usually hsv2, though you can easily get genital hsv1 from someone performing oral sex on you.
Yes, there is stigma around this. Who cares? I don't let others dictate what I wear, what kind of music I listen to, what TV shows I watch. Why would I let them dictate how I feel about having herpes?
In the big scheme of it all, herpes won't kill me. I get outbreaks at times that are at the most uncomfortable. I have far more painful and serious health conditions. Yes, some people are affected physically more than I am, but still, in the big scheme, it's not fatal. I'll be fine.
Getting herpes from a one time protected encounter is unlikely, if the person infected does not have an outbreak. It's certainly not impossible, but it's unlikely.
These are the chances you have to be comfortable with if you are having sex outside a long-term, mutually monogamous relationship with someone who is not infected.
I don't know where you live, but it sounds like perhaps the UK, where it is almost impossible to get the blood test. That drives me crazy, as well.
I'm not entirely sure why you have such anger about this. Genital herpes, usually type 2, is only known as an STD because that's how it's transmitted. Chicken pox is transmitted by either touching the lesions, or coming into contact with someone's saliva via the air (coughing, sneezing, etc.). You don't have to have sexual contact to get it - you don't even have to touch someone to get it. Shingles is a result of the chicken pox, and is the same virus. It's what happens when the varicella virus reactivates years later - it's not an exposure to something new.
Cold sores are the same family as genital herpes - oral herpes is hsv1, and genital herpes is usually hsv2, though you can easily get genital hsv1 from someone performing oral sex on you.
Yes, there is stigma around this. Who cares? I don't let others dictate what I wear, what kind of music I listen to, what TV shows I watch. Why would I let them dictate how I feel about having herpes?
In the big scheme of it all, herpes won't kill me. I get outbreaks at times that are at the most uncomfortable. I have far more painful and serious health conditions. Yes, some people are affected physically more than I am, but still, in the big scheme, it's not fatal. I'll be fine.
I care. I do have anger. Thousands suffer from this with no adequate way of protecting yourself. Read about people having sex one time and getting it. You can be in a fully monogamous relationship and have obtained the virus prior to the relationship. The virus can lie dormant for years. As for the stigma is it horrible. Maybe you can overlook it but I don’t want to ever have to have that issue where I have to inform my partner prior to sex I have an std. Have you looked at the outbreaks shown on the internet? That is what people think of when they hear about you having it. I knew that the skin viruses I mentioned are not a form of herpes. What I was trying to say badly is there are tons of skin issues that do not carry the same stigma. Cold sores which are herpies are widely accepted in society. Genital herpies is not. No it isn’t fatal. It is a pesky skin virus at most. That said try telling that to someone who as never contracted the disease. Most feel pretty strongly about it. I just think if science doesn’t know how to prevent ever obtaining the disease, they should say so! Not give a bunch of preventative measures after having contracted it. I’m sick of medicine pretending to know everything. It burns me up. I meant no offense.
Also 30% protection is not protection! I recognize nothing is 100%. Most stds can be protected against with a much higher percentage of protection.
Do you have herpes?
I do. I've had it for 15+ years. I don't "suffer" with it. I've told plenty of people I have it, and have never had anyone turn me down for sex. I've even used it to try to get guys away from me, as in, "Oh my god, you don't want me. I have herpes", and it doesn't work. I am no super model. I'm a middle aged, average woman.
I know transmission stats, take suppressive meds, and depending on the relationship, use condoms. I've never transmitted it to anyone.
Science has admitted that they can't prevent transmission entirely. I know it can't.
This seems like an odd thing to get so angry about when you don't have it (or it sounds like you don't).
Are you male or female? Who are your partners? I can give you transmission stats. It's probably lower than you think.
I do. I've had it for 15+ years. I don't "suffer" with it. I've told plenty of people I have it, and have never had anyone turn me down for sex. I've even used it to try to get guys away from me, as in, "Oh my god, you don't want me. I have herpes", and it doesn't work. I am no super model. I'm a middle aged, average woman.
I know transmission stats, take suppressive meds, and depending on the relationship, use condoms. I've never transmitted it to anyone.
Science has admitted that they can't prevent transmission entirely. I know it can't.
This seems like an odd thing to get so angry about when you don't have it (or it sounds like you don't).
Are you male or female? Who are your partners? I can give you transmission stats. It's probably lower than you think.
Im just curious, but I heard that condoms have like 0% protection for men, simply because they don't cover the areas that come in contact with a women if she has herpes (i.e around the vagina). Is this true?
the handbook is at www.westoverheights.com. it's free to read online and is up to date and accurate.
where you get actual lesions at is actually fairly meaningless other than when you have an active lesion present, avoid sex. The virus sheds from the area of the lesion when you have one as well as from the entire anogenital area ( think anus and any of the soft, pinker skin in the genital area which for males is pretty much just the penis ).
condoms do help but daily suppressive therapy combined with condoms does the most good at protecting a partner.
where you get actual lesions at is actually fairly meaningless other than when you have an active lesion present, avoid sex. The virus sheds from the area of the lesion when you have one as well as from the entire anogenital area ( think anus and any of the soft, pinker skin in the genital area which for males is pretty much just the penis ).
condoms do help but daily suppressive therapy combined with condoms does the most good at protecting a partner.
So that would mean that condoms are essentially useless in preventing this virus? I read somewhere that as long as you are able to cover the areas (i.e using a condom) that have had or are having an outbreak you won't transmit the virus. And no I haven't read the handbook.
you still have genital herpes, not just anal herpes. your risks are the same as someone who has ob's on their penis - there's no difference. You shed from the entire anogenital area periodically both with and without obvious lesions.
have you ever read the free herpes handbook?
grace
have you ever read the free herpes handbook?
grace
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You are reading content posted in the Herpes Community
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Millions of people are diagnosed with STDs in the U.S. each year.
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
