Herpes - chance of transmitting to partner

[worriedone731]

I am a male, 36. I have recently had a full set of STD tests - just felt it was a sensible thing to do as I am in a new relationship but prior to that have probably had a few encounters over the years that were not as safe as they should have been. Unfortunately I have been diagnosed with HSV2 - never had any symptoms (have done quite a bit of research on this) so not really possible to know how long I have had this. I have a new girlfriend (approx 2 months) - we have always used a condom for sex, but I have received unprotected oral sex from her. In addition there was an incident a few weeks ago when the condom broke (she took the "morning after" pill).

I plan to tell my partner about my infectiom but wish to have all of the facts at my fingertips before I do, hence these are my questions:

- What are the chances of me having transmitted the virus to her during oral sex (me receiving), when I have not had any noticeable symptoms of the virus?
- If we continue to practice oral sex without a condom, what are the chances over time of her contracting the virus if I do not have a visible outbreak?
- What are the realistic chances of her having caught the virus from me after 1 instance of unprotected sex (broken condom), where I had no visible symptoms?

Obviously am very nervous about telling her, of course it is the right thing to do but don't wish to jeopardise the relationship.

Thanks

[Terri Warren, RN, Adult Nurse Practitioner]

Its good that you want to tell your partner, but your timing isn't good.  You should have told her before having any kind of sexual contact with her, I think.  I think you can expect her to be disappointment at a minimum.  The chances of acquiring HSV 2 with one episode of a broken condom and oral sex is low, but not zero.  It would be a good idea for her to be tested at this point, if she hasn't recently been tested specically for her, because if she has been infected already, then you both have nothing to worry about. The testing that you had done - do you recall or can you obtain the index value associated with the positive HSV 2 result = sometimes there are low positives that can be false positives.  

Terri

[worriedone731]

Hi Terri

Thank you for your response. In terms of timing I did not explain very clearly - I received the results this week, so the contact with my partner that I am worried about occurred before then (i.e. I was tested a little over 2 weeks ago, and between then and the test results the contact occurred), and I will be telling her before there is any further sexual contact. Had I known that I had HSV2 I would not have engaged in any sexual activity without letting her know.

In terms of her getting tested - is there an incubation period or can she be tested straight away? You say that the chances of transmission are low - although there was only the 1 broken condom incident there have probably been 7-8 incidences of me receiving oral sex from her since we met a few months ago - without any symptoms on my part does this still mean a low chance of transmission from me?

Thanks for your help!

[Terri Warren, RN, Adult Nurse Practitioner]

Thanks for clarifying the  timing for me.  She can certainly get a baseline test now and repeat it after 4 months, unless you continue to have sex in which case the testing date is always a moving target.  I still think her chance of acquiring HSV from you in those incidents is low.

Terri