[Question #1042] Concerned that my hsv 1 oral outbreak was transferred

103 months ago

I have been diagnosed with oral hsv 1 last year and this is my 4th outbreak. So what happened was that last night i was intimately kissing a girl and she gave me oral sex and i performed oral sex on her and then we had intercourse. Towards the end of our session i felt a small bump on my lower lip and this is usually the indication that i will have an oral hsv 1 outbreak (i don't get the tingly sensation, it usually starts with a bump). So when i woke up this morning i checked my lip and I did have a small bump and a white patch over it. This is the very very early symptom of my outbreak and it takes 2-3 days for the bump to turn into a vesicle or blister.

I am just extremely worried that I transmitted oral hsv 1 to her or even genital hsv 1 to her because she doesnt have a history of hsv1. I wanted to know if the chances of transmission is lower because my outbreak is in the most early stage where visually it's not even that detectable that i have a cold sore. I feel bad because i wasn't even aware that I was having an outbreak! I was also wondering if I need to inform her because i feel like i'm over thinking this! By the way i was an idiot this morning and we kissed intimately again and had intercourse but no oral sex. Please help! Thank you!

Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner

103 months ago

People shed virus at varying time during an outbreak - some before, almost all during and some after. There is no way to know what is true for you but I definitely think there is risk there and yes, I think you should surely talk to her about this so if she starts getting symptoms, she can start treatment immediately and not sort of wander about wondering if it is yeast or a UTI or what. It would also be reasonable to have her get an IgG test for HSV 1 and 2 and see if she might already be infected and not know it.

Terri
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