Hit with a ton of bricks today

[wafflehousebetty]

I was diagnosed with herpes today via a culture swab.  I am extremely upset.  I was in a monogomous relationship for 7 years and split up with this person a year ago.  My outbreak coincided with inflammation of my clit ring that was irritated during some major oral sex I was receiving from my currrent partner of four months.  We don't always use condoms either.  I didn't believe that I had the Herp and am still in shock.  I had absolutely no other symptoms other than the bumps that resembled in-grown hairs.  I thought they were related to my irritated piercing.  Now I'm shocked and concerned.  When did I acquire this virus?  Will I ever know?  
*If all of my partners have been without symptoms, what are the odds that I've had this virus for a long time and why was my initial outbreak so mild?  
*Is it likely that I recieved this from my current lover since I got the outbreak with an open cut (my piercing) coming into both oral and sexual contact with him?  
*He's never experienced any symptoms of HSV.  What if I got it from my partner of seven years and neither of us have experienced symptoms?  
*Is it possible that I've now exposed this new guy?  If I did have it from before, could I have transferred it to him since the virus was likely shedding seeing as how I broke out less than a week after our last sexual encounter?
*I don't think I can ever sleep with him again if he doesn't have HSV because no matter if I use condoms and take Valtrex, he can likely still catch it from me.... Am I mistaken here??

[Edward W Hook, MD]

The title of your post says it all.  The diagnosis of herpes is all too often like being hit by a ton of bricks.  At the same time, you are far from alone.  Conservatively one in four women has genital herpes, of whom only 10-15% of those are aware that they are infected.  While it does not feel like it right now, knowledge is power and the knowledge of your infection allows to take care of yourself and your partners better than those who do not know they have it.  There is also much that you can do to control this and its impact on you and your relationships.

first to your questions:

1&2.  Hard to know who you got this from.  It could have been a prior partner or your current one.  In addition, it could have been HSV-1 or HSV-2.  Do you know which.  Which virus is important as it effects your chances of transmission to partners, management plans, ETC.
3.  Your piercing my have contributed to your susceptibility.
4.  Either partner could have been a source.  Either way, my advice would be for your current partner to have a good, type specific herpes blood test such as the Herpeselect.  This will not tell you where your infection came from but will allow you to make some decisions about how to minimize risk of spread (there is much that can be done).  If you do not know which type of virus you are infected with, you should have the blood test as well.
5.  If he's not infected, you could have exposed your newer partner.
6.  Of course you can.  there are good, effective  ways to reduce HSV transmission.  these include:  Condoms (reduce risk of transmission by 50-75%); chronic suppressive antiviral therapy (reduces transmission by 50%); abstinence during recurrences; disclosure to partners.  these are all additive and together reduce the chance of transmission dramatically.

Finally you need more information.  Search this site using the search terms herpes, or HSV.  In addition, the American Social health Association has both a great web site and a good hotline which are helpful and full of resources (disclosure, Dr. Handsfield and I are both on the Board of ASHA).

Hope this helps.  Find out which type of HSV you have.  EWH

[wafflehousebetty]

I just found out it's HSV1.  What now?  What are the differences and the precautions that I should take?  thanks so much for you help.

[wafflehousebetty]

also, if I was given then via oral sex, can i give it back to this same person as genital herpes now?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

That is is HSV-1 is good news.  It means that your chances of giving your infection to others is far lower than if it was HSV-2.  Genital shedding of virus is lower for persons with genital HSV-1 than HSV-2.    Your chances of giving your infection to partners, particularly if you use condoms is very low.  The benefits of antiviral suppressive therapy is unknown in this situation becasue the transmission rate is lower, making it harder to study.  Nonetheless, it is infectious.  I am not suggesting that you do not use precautions.  

If this was given to you by your current partner, he should have some degree of immunity, making it much harder (sorry, not impossible) to give it back to him

Hope this helps.  It is good news in this situation. EWH

[wafflehousebetty]

OK... so today I got another whammie!  I got blood tests to see if I had built up antibodies to HSV, I was informed today that I tested positive for I and II... but then I read that HSVII has a high false positive rate...is this true?  and if I have enough antibodies in my blood already to diagnose the HSV, does that mean that I've had the infection longer than I thought?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Boy, it keeps coming doesn't it.  To help you on this one I need to know what sort of test it was (hopefully a HerpeSelect or similar, gG-based, type specific test) and what the numerical values of the results for foth HSV-1 and -2 are.  This will help me to help you interpret the results. In some situations there can be cross reactions and false positives.  EWH

[houstonbound]

I was diagnosed with HSV-1 earlier this year, it started out as what I thought was a yeast infection until blisters broke out.  Unfortunately I had had an affair but fortunately my husband had found out about it prior to the herpes outbreak so he wasn't completely hit by the freight train all at once.  My husband was tested and it was found that he also has HSV-1 in his system and that it has been there for quite some time.  So of course, there's no way to know if I got it from the affair or from him or even from someone years before I was married to him but only had the first outbreak now for whatever reason.  I am on valtrex, 500mg once per day and if i start noticing signs of a possible outbreak I increase it to 2 times per day.  Only lately has my husband shown any signs of an outbreak and it's coldsore type cracks on the corners of his mouth that don't seem to go away, other than that he's been fine, thank God.  If wafflehousebetty is reading this I do want her to know that it does get better, it sucks, and will always suck, but it does get at least somewhat better and if you want to contact me about it please do so through here.