Can genital HSV-1 symptoms occur within 24hrs of exposure?

[uncertain123]

I have had recurring cold sores since I was a child.  Recently I had one that, I thought, had healed.  Thinking this, I performed oral sex on my HSV-free girlfriend for no more than five minutes on Monday evening.  By Tuesday afternoon she had found a single blemish on her genitals and so she visited a walk-in centre after work.  The advisor said the blemish looks like an ulcer but could be herpes.  She said that she could not take a sample to test for herpes because "it was not a blister".  Cue freaking out and tears.

My girlfriend has no history of HSV and, upon inspecting my seemingly-healed cold sore, I see that it remains a red blemish -- although all scabbing has been gone for about a week.  I asked her this morning, Thursday, how it's looking, and she said "it's getting better".  She intends to visit a sexual health clinic for a second opinion and possible test.  

Could it be that I passed HSV-1 to her genitally during this exposure?  Do symptoms ever occur within 24 hours?  Could a primary breakout look like this?

Unfortunately I am a little hazy on the details as my girlfriend was pretty upset when she told me all of this.

If she is diagnosed as having HSV-1, and hopefully she is not, what are the practical implications for our sex life?  We previously had sex without condoms as she is on the pill.  Would we need to take extra precautions?

I feel horribly guilty about this. Many thanks for any advice.

[worryman297]

Definitely very possible. Congratz. She can get a test for hsv1 remember that 70% of people dont get reccurent cold sores its very likely she had been infected orally as a sexually active adult. If you are certain that she is negative  then yes precautions should be taken

[uncertain123]

Thanks for your response. She says the blemish has cleared now, Friday, four days after she first noticed it. It does not sound at all like an HSV primary outbreak.

I hope that one does not occur over the next couple of weeks.

Assuming all is well, I will talk to her about the possibility of asymptomatic shedding and take care in the future that my cold sores have healed 100% before doing anything.

It is possible that the blemish was just minor trauma or an abrasion, as we had not had sex for three weeks and then proceeded to have quite vigorous sex after the oral.

[worryman297]

This doesnt have to be a anything to be concerned about in your relatiosnhip. Dont act based on assumptions even if she infact has ghsv1 she can never pass it to you so no extra precaution like suppressive threapy (espically gor ghsv1 which rarely repeats) is necessary.

[worryman297]

No a virus needs at least more than a day usually. You could infected her esp have or if you havefrequent reccurences.
This probably have happened before an this is just a reccurence
This needs to be confirmed by a blood test and if anything ever happens a PCR swab. Even if she is infected she cant pass it back to your genitals by intercourse when no sores present. Since you already have immunity. If you are in a long term relationship with someone hsv1+ which is 65% of the population, you can get it. Really its not a big deal it is the common cold of stds, it can be classified as an std but if you think about it even the flu can be an std. I highly doub that ulcer/scar was hsv1 an outbreak would never clear a day or after infection.