HSV1=STD? but I'm married and monogamous, how did I get it?

[rwe836]

I have just been diagnosed with HSV1 from a blood test.  I went to the doctors with canchor sores inside my mouth along my jaws, and a fever.  My wife and I are not doing well maritally anyway, and now this.  She recently admitted being alone with a man (supposed friend), but vehemently denies any intimate contact whatsoever.  I just found out that this man recently suffered from mouth pain so severe that it kept him from work.  

I have been totally monogamous and had not had sex for at least a year before my wife.  I have never had symptoms that even resemble what I presented to the doctor recently.  My wife has not symptoms that I can tell.  She was diagnosed with HPV when we were first married but nothing else.  Recently she was prescribed: Aldara 5% Cream, Metronidazole  .75% Gel 70G, and Cephalexin 500mg Capsules.  I met with her doctor (before my diagnosis), and her doctor assured me that my wife was being treated for something that I was not in danger of contracting.  

My wife and I  range in having sex from maybe 3 times a week, (typically on the same day), to 4 times a month.  We don't use condoms, we seldom if ever kiss  and we don't practice oral sex.  This last time we did kiss, a lot. Two days later I had the chancher sores and a day after that, a fever.

Does my new diagnosis of HSV1 provide further evidence of the possibility that she has had intimacies (i.e. kissing or oral sex or colitus) with someone else?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Canker sores are not herpes and the two can be confused.  Canker sores occur on the inside of the mouth and oral herpes occurs on the lips.

If you had a blood test which was positive for HSV-1 at the time your canker sores appeared, this means that you had HSV-1 before the time that your canker sores appeared.  It take weeks to months for antibodies for herpes virus to appear.

As for HSV-1, having a positive blood test tells you nothing about how long you have had it it who gave it to you.  Here in the US about 60% of adults have HSV-1 and without a blood test about 80-90% of those infecteed peole do not know it.  Most people with HSV-1 acquire it in childhood.  Your diagnosis of HSV-1 is not evidence that your wife has been with someone else.  EWH.