Odds of getting herpes from single potential exposure

[Anon105]

Approximately 5 weeks ago I had sex with a female sex worker in Europe (I'm American).  I'm male.  I've determined HSV2 rates among such sex workers is high and I'm now just assuming she had herpes.

Our sexual encounter went like this.  She started by masturbating my bare penis with her hands for 5 minutes.  She then applied a condom to me and gave me oral sex for 1 minute.  We then had intercourse for approximately 20 minutes in various positions: doggy style, missionary with me on top, and spooning.  We stopped without me finishing inside her.  She had some paper towels and wiped off my penis with the condom on it and took off the condom.  The condom appeared unbroken.  She then masturbated me, but to finsh things up more quickly, I finished myself off.  

During the intercourse, I felt her genital area with my hand twice briefly.  My fingers were not likely near her vaginal opening, but likely were in her labia folds.  I did feel the lubrication on her, which probably was on my hand to some degree with I finsihed masterbating (masturbating) myself.  Thus, I am concerned that some transmission of vaginal fluids to my unprotected penis did occur, even though all the intercourse was condom protected.

Does this scenerio seem likely to transmit herpes to myself?  I did not even really look at her genitals to see if she had visible herpes sores.  She could have for all I know.

About 1 week after this contact, I developed what I thought were 4-5 large mosquito bites.  They were very itchy and large.  I had one on my elbow, one on my knee, one on my lower back and one on one of my buttocks.  They are nothing like what I've seen for herpes blisters.  This were not blisters.  Much more like large bug bites.  They were roughly dime-sized in diameter and probably 1/2 inch high.  Are those possible herpes infections?

There is one other complication.  I have a prior skin condition known as lichen sclerosis.  The disease cause my immune system to attack the connective tissue in my skin around my foreskin.  It also causes a thinning of the skin and fissures in the skin in the foreskin.  None of my foreskin was visibly torn or bleeding or anything, but I'm concerned the lichen sclerosis dramatically increases the probably of getting herpes (or HIV for that matter).

Thank you for your time...

[gracefromHHP]

The risk from a one time protected encounter is too low to really worry about.

If you still have any of the skin lesions present I'd follow up on them with a dermatologist or your doctor - not because of the risk of them being herpes as much as the risk of a bacterial infection.  It would be incredibly unusual for herpes to present itself all over your body as you described - either you really did get a bunch of bug bites or it was a bacterial issue.  

If your lichens wasn't flared up at the time - it's really a non-issue anyways.  I'm assuming you treat it when it does flare up since you are aware that you have it.

If you know you won't rest easily again until you've ruled out herpes - wait another month and then get yourself a type specific herpes igg blood test for hsv1 and hsv2.  No reason to do it just because you were with a sex worker though.

grace

[Anon105]

Thanks for the reply grace.  I am indeed one of those people that won't feel good until getting a test done, but I appreciate your insight.

I am a little confused by your statement though.  Why do you say there is no reason to be concerned about herpes when I was with a sex worker.  Doesn't that greatly increase the odds that the person I was with had herpes?  And, stupidly, I did not even check to make sure she didn't ahve any sores.  If she had sores, would it be too painful to have sex for her?  I can't think that she would simply not have sex (her only source of income) just because she had sores and was conerened about other's health.  

One other question, does herpes, like HIV, require some break in the skin to be transmitted?

[gracefromHHP]

It was a one time protected encounter. It's still low risk even if she does have herpes ( which she's likely to have ).  Depending on the location of her lesions if she did have an ob at the time - you would've noticed she was in pain during sex unless she was stoned out of her gourd.

It really is just as much about bad luck as anything when you get herpes though convincing yourself of that isn't always an easy thing to do.

grace