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HSV2 and HIV
I am aware that the risks for contracting HIV from unprotected oral sex are low, and I'm sure you've answered this before, but I am concerned about a slightly different situation. I am fairly certain that I contracted HSV-2 from recieving unprotected oral about 2 1/2 weeks ago. I am certain that I have it as I was diagnosed with it when I was tested less than a week ago, but I am uncertain WHEN I contracted it. What I am worried about is the risk increase that HSV-2 presents to catching HIV. I am 100% certain I did not have HIV before I recieved oral sex, what is the chance that I contracted HIV from oral bearing in mind I either had HSV-2 already(never had any symptoms), or contraced HSV-2 from the prostitute I recieved oral from?
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to our Forum. I will address several elements of your questions and suspect that as I begin to answer your question you may want to provide some clarification.
First the facts, there are numerous studies which have shown that people who have genital herpes due to HSV-2 are about 3-fold more likely to get HIV than people who do not have HSV-2 but are similarly exposed, all else being equal. Thus having HIV does increase a person's risk for HIV. These data however are all based on studies of HIV transmitted through ano-genital sex, not through oral sex. There is no credible evidence that HIV is spread through oral sex (giving or receiving) so your having HSV-2 will not meaningfully increase your risk if your only exposure was oral sex and IF your partner had HIV (which is also unlikely)
Getting HSV-2 form oral sex is rather unusual. How did you find out that you have HSV-2? Was there a culture or PCR test? My guess is that if your diagnosis was based on a blood test you did not get HSV-2 through receipt of oral sex. Either way however, as I said earlier, if your only exposure was oral sex, you need not worry about your risk of HIV. In fact, if your only exposure was oral, you really do not even need HIV testing. EWH
First the facts, there are numerous studies which have shown that people who have genital herpes due to HSV-2 are about 3-fold more likely to get HIV than people who do not have HSV-2 but are similarly exposed, all else being equal. Thus having HIV does increase a person's risk for HIV. These data however are all based on studies of HIV transmitted through ano-genital sex, not through oral sex. There is no credible evidence that HIV is spread through oral sex (giving or receiving) so your having HSV-2 will not meaningfully increase your risk if your only exposure was oral sex and IF your partner had HIV (which is also unlikely)
Getting HSV-2 form oral sex is rather unusual. How did you find out that you have HSV-2? Was there a culture or PCR test? My guess is that if your diagnosis was based on a blood test you did not get HSV-2 through receipt of oral sex. Either way however, as I said earlier, if your only exposure was oral sex, you need not worry about your risk of HIV. In fact, if your only exposure was oral, you really do not even need HIV testing. EWH
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
My guess is that you, like 80-90% of people who have HSV-2, are unaaware that you have had it. You may have caught it in the distant past.
Yes., even with HSV-2, there is virtually no risk of you gettig HIV, if she even had it. EWH
Yes., even with HSV-2, there is virtually no risk of you gettig HIV, if she even had it. EWH
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
This will be the last answer to this thread. If there are further questions, I am afraid you will need to start a new question.
Your risk of her giving you HIV through oral sex is essentially zero, no matter how "nasty" (judgmental term, and why have sex with a nasty person anyway?) she was. The risk for HSV is slightly but only slightly higher.
A HerpeSelect value of 1.23, while reported as "positive" by the company, actually turns out to be falsely positive about 75% of the time when efforts are made to confirm the diagnosis. While there is a small chance that you may be on the process of developing antibodies to HSV, it is far more likely that if tested with an alternative test for confirmation such as the BioKit assay of a Western blot from the University of Washington, your results will be negative or indeterminate, indicating that your HerpeSelect result was falsely positive.
I repeat, there is no reason for concern about HIV from the exposure you describe and I suspect your HSV-2 result is a false positive which can be resolved with confirmatory testing of the sort I suggested above. There is much good information about HSV testing available at the excellent web site offered by the American social health Association. I suggest you take a look.
this thread is now over. EWH
Your risk of her giving you HIV through oral sex is essentially zero, no matter how "nasty" (judgmental term, and why have sex with a nasty person anyway?) she was. The risk for HSV is slightly but only slightly higher.
A HerpeSelect value of 1.23, while reported as "positive" by the company, actually turns out to be falsely positive about 75% of the time when efforts are made to confirm the diagnosis. While there is a small chance that you may be on the process of developing antibodies to HSV, it is far more likely that if tested with an alternative test for confirmation such as the BioKit assay of a Western blot from the University of Washington, your results will be negative or indeterminate, indicating that your HerpeSelect result was falsely positive.
I repeat, there is no reason for concern about HIV from the exposure you describe and I suspect your HSV-2 result is a false positive which can be resolved with confirmatory testing of the sort I suggested above. There is much good information about HSV testing available at the excellent web site offered by the American social health Association. I suggest you take a look.
this thread is now over. EWH
I'm sorry to bother you again, and let me know if I need to pay to continue to ask questions, but here goes:
What prompted me to get tested was that 2-3 days after possible exposure(and this was not a very clean woman.) I developed very mild UTI symptoms so 13 days after my encounter I had an std screening, everything came back negative except the herpeselect HSV-2 test, which had an index of 1.24, anything over 1.1 being positive of course.
What makes me think I contracted HSV-2 from this encounter is that my index is low, which could imply that the infection has not set in very well yet, and that my last unprotected sexual encouter was over a year ago with no symptoms so far, and the fact that once again, this was not a very clean woman.
What worries me, is that if this woman was nasty enough to have infected me with HSV-2 orally, which you said is uncommon, could she have been nasty enough to have infected me with HIV orally assuming she had it? While I saw no blood or open sores, how much would open sores or bleeding gums affect the usual no risk assessment for the transmission of HIV through oral?
I know this is bothersome, but it weighs heavily on my mind, and 8 weeks is a long time.
What prompted me to get tested was that 2-3 days after possible exposure(and this was not a very clean woman.) I developed very mild UTI symptoms so 13 days after my encounter I had an std screening, everything came back negative except the herpeselect HSV-2 test, which had an index of 1.24, anything over 1.1 being positive of course.
What makes me think I contracted HSV-2 from this encounter is that my index is low, which could imply that the infection has not set in very well yet, and that my last unprotected sexual encouter was over a year ago with no symptoms so far, and the fact that once again, this was not a very clean woman.
What worries me, is that if this woman was nasty enough to have infected me with HSV-2 orally, which you said is uncommon, could she have been nasty enough to have infected me with HIV orally assuming she had it? While I saw no blood or open sores, how much would open sores or bleeding gums affect the usual no risk assessment for the transmission of HIV through oral?
I know this is bothersome, but it weighs heavily on my mind, and 8 weeks is a long time.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
At 8 weeks you can have complete confidence in your HIV test results. Thus, any routine test for HIV antibodies taken more than 8 weeks after exposure will confirm that you did not get HIV. EWH
Assuming I still want to get tested again for peace of mind, what length of time should I wait after exposure for test accuracy?
Also, thank you for all your advice.
Also, thank you for all your advice.
I had a blood test done to find the HSV. I am unsure when I contracted it and I have never had a known outbreak.
You're saying that even if she gave me the HSV and she had HIV that there is still virtually no chance she transferred both and I don't even need to get tested again?
You're saying that even if she gave me the HSV and she had HIV that there is still virtually no chance she transferred both and I don't even need to get tested again?
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