Oral herpes from genital contact?

[AngelBaby213]

I've had cold sores all my life.  I gave a man oral sex that was unprotected and two weeks later started feeling sick.  He had no visible skin problems on his penis and says he had been in "clean" monogamous relationships to that point.  I developed mild to moderate flu like symptoms the first week, then that transitioned into a week of being sick with the worse sore throat of my life. My neck glands were swollen and I continued to have a fever off and on. About that time I developed 3 sores around my anal area which I thought were hemorrhoids at first. Being open they burned when I urinated .  It wasn't the kind of pain I was used to having with my cold sores. The sore throat got better, the sores did not, and that changed and became a severe cold, congestion and cough.  I am a very healthy person and haven't been sick in years. I rarely get mild cold symptoms.  When the sores weren't healing  I started wondering about herpes.  I looked it up and all my symptoms were classic for an initial herpes outbreak.  The next day I went to be seen and the clinician said the lesions absolutely looked like herpes. She took cultures, sent me to get blood work and started me on Acyclovir. The lesions started healing within 24 hours.

I was told by the clinician I couldn't have given the man genital herpes because there was no intercourse or oral/vaginal sex.

My question is, could I have gotten the genital herpes by performing oral sex on a man who unknowingly has herpes but no visible signs?  Would the anal lesions show up if there was no intercourse?

[gracefromHHP]

your hsv1 of course is still positive.

your hsv2 is also positive and above the typical false positive cut off rate.  

could it be a recently acquired infection? it could be and it would be from the partner you had vaginal sex with, not the partner you only performed oral on.  

keep asking questions!  My vacation is over now so I don't always have time to get on daily but I do stop in frequently :)

[AngelBaby213]

Thanks for all you responses and help with this.  I got quite the runaround locally.  The clinic I went to said there were no quantitative results, only positive or negative.  So I went to an online testing center. I got my results today.  They were drawn 5 days ago, over 4 weeks after I started getting ill.

HSV 1 IgG Type Specific     6.20

HSV 2 IgG Type Specific     5.04

I haven't heard anything from the first clinic about my Herpes cultures.  They were done about 12 days ago.

I've been so ill this past month I'm having trouble believing this wasn't an initial outbreak of HSV 2 and a new infection.

I'll let you know my culture results when I get them.

Thanks for all your help.

[AngelBaby213]

This is getting so frustrating.   I talked to the clinician who sent me for my blood work last week.

She said the results were positive IGG for HSV 1 & 2
I asked for the values and she said the lab doesn't have any values to report to tell me whether the infection is new or old.
She said a positive IGG says the infection is old (more than 6 weeks from contact at the time of the testing)
She said a positive IGM says the infection is new (less than 6 weeks from contact)

What I need to know is could the contact I had 5 weeks before my initial outbreak have given me this infection?  According to these tests and what I'm being told, even that is showing as "old".

She also said other local labs did not quantify the results.  

I'm at a loss on how to procedure and how to find get the results I need.

Can you comment on this and help me understand what lab values are most helpful to me?  

Thanks

[gracefromHHP]

of course you'd have a + hsv1 igg - you have a history of cold sores!!

igm herpes testing isn't recommended. your provider should update their herpes blood testing knowledge.

I can help you with your hsv2 results if you can post them here - e.g. hsv2 igg 2.3 or whatever they are.  I can then help you see if you need additional confirmatory testing to confirm your status .  you tested too early with blood testing from the unprotected vaginal sex you had so if you do have a low positive, you'll need to wait and repeat your testing later on.  

you didn't contract hsv2 from someone touching themselves and then touching your genital area.

[AngelBaby213]

Is it possible to get genital herpes from the man handling his penis then fingering my perineum and vaginal area?

[AngelBaby213]

Thanks for your answers.  And no, they didn't test me for chlamydia and gonorrhea.  I go back tomorrow and I'll ask about that.
My initial blood work showed that I'm positive for both HSV 1 and HSV 2.  I'm still waiting for the IgG and IgM results. I suspect the HSV 1 is old and the HSV 2 is the new outbreak.

You mentioned getting symptoms 2-20 days after contact. I had unprotected vaginal sex about 5 weeks (35 days) before this initial outbreak. That's about 2 weeks out of the range you mentioned.  Is it still possible that I received the HSV 2 from this contact?  Thanks

[gracefromHHP]

oh and since you performed oral, did you also get tested orally for chlamydia and gonorrhea too?

[gracefromHHP]

you performed oral sex so indeed if this man was hsv1 negative, you could've transmitted your oral hsv1 infection to him.  if he's had no symptoms within 2-20 days after you performed oral on him, he didn't contract it.

if the only contact was you performing oral sex on him, you absolutely wouldn't have contracted anything genitally from him.  

grace