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Possible genital herpes infection?
by autonomie97, Aug 11, 2009 01:19PM
Hello:
I'm a 33 year old male, HSV-1 positive (confirmed via blood test in 2004--I've never had a cold sore)
On 7/31/09, I had unprotected vaginal sex with a woman I'd been dating. A week later, she confessed to me that 2 yrs ago she'd contracted genital herpes from her ex-boyfriend, at which point she experienced an outbreak. She's been taking Valtrex, and has not experienced a recurrence since then. So according to her, she had no visible open sores the night we had sex.
Still, she was very concerned that she may have spread the virus to me, saying the virus can be transmitted at any time, regardless of there being a visible outbreak. I've done some online research on the disease and came up with the following facts:
- Herpes is more contagious during outbreak periods.
- Asymptomatic shedding generally occurs a few days a year, during which time the virus is spread unknowingly; thus it's believed that up to 70% of all infections occur during this period, since people usually abstain from sex during outbreaks and don't when everything seems 'all clear'.
- Using Valtrex reduces the frequency and duration of periods of asymptomatic shedding, lessening chances of spreading HSV-2 between couples when there's no outbreak. (see study results: http://www.natap.org/2003/may/051503_1.htm)
- People who are infected with HSV-1 and asymptomatic are more likely to not contract/show symptoms of HSV-2
- initial outbreak usually occurs within 2 - 10 of exposure
- Around 70% of people with HSV-2 antibodies in their blood never show any symptoms or the symptoms are very mild and ambiguous.
It's been 11 days since I was potentially exposed to the virus and I haven't experienced any symptoms as of yet. Based on the facts I've gathered (mostly from this site, mayoclinic, webmd, etc), I'm leaning towards there being quite a small chance that I was infected or will be symptomatic. Should I still be worried at this point, how much longer 'wait and see' time do I have, and does it make sense for me to, in a couple of months, receive a blood test for HSV-2 antibodies?
Thanks
I'm a 33 year old male, HSV-1 positive (confirmed via blood test in 2004--I've never had a cold sore)
On 7/31/09, I had unprotected vaginal sex with a woman I'd been dating. A week later, she confessed to me that 2 yrs ago she'd contracted genital herpes from her ex-boyfriend, at which point she experienced an outbreak. She's been taking Valtrex, and has not experienced a recurrence since then. So according to her, she had no visible open sores the night we had sex.
Still, she was very concerned that she may have spread the virus to me, saying the virus can be transmitted at any time, regardless of there being a visible outbreak. I've done some online research on the disease and came up with the following facts:
- Herpes is more contagious during outbreak periods.
- Asymptomatic shedding generally occurs a few days a year, during which time the virus is spread unknowingly; thus it's believed that up to 70% of all infections occur during this period, since people usually abstain from sex during outbreaks and don't when everything seems 'all clear'.
- Using Valtrex reduces the frequency and duration of periods of asymptomatic shedding, lessening chances of spreading HSV-2 between couples when there's no outbreak. (see study results: http://www.natap.org/2003/may/051503_1.htm)
- People who are infected with HSV-1 and asymptomatic are more likely to not contract/show symptoms of HSV-2
- initial outbreak usually occurs within 2 - 10 of exposure
- Around 70% of people with HSV-2 antibodies in their blood never show any symptoms or the symptoms are very mild and ambiguous.
It's been 11 days since I was potentially exposed to the virus and I haven't experienced any symptoms as of yet. Based on the facts I've gathered (mostly from this site, mayoclinic, webmd, etc), I'm leaning towards there being quite a small chance that I was infected or will be symptomatic. Should I still be worried at this point, how much longer 'wait and see' time do I have, and does it make sense for me to, in a couple of months, receive a blood test for HSV-2 antibodies?
Thanks
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Here are odds based on female to male transmission of genital herpes.
FEMALE TO MALE RATE OF TRANSMISSION (HSV2 ONLY STATS IS NOT APPLICABLE FOR HSV1)
If you have 100 couples where the female has HSV2 but not the male (these figures are over a year) the odds of female to male transmission are, if you do nothing other than avoid sex during an outbreak, 4 men out of a 100 will get herpes in a year, or 4%. If you do go on a suppressive therapy then it drops to 2 men out of a 100 in a year, or 2%. And if you use suppressive and a condom the chances are 1 man out of a 100 will get herpes in one year or 1%.
The Valtrex and transmission study stats are based on having sex 2 times/week.