[Question #12693] Genital Hsv1 curiosity/concern
6 months ago
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Hello, I have some curiosity/concern regarding to genital Hsv1 from receiving oral sex. I don’t know too much about genital Hsv1 in general when it comes to oral sex. Since December 3rd of 2024 up until January 25th 2025 I had received oral sex from 3 different women.
What had me concerned was as of last Wednesday early morning which was on February 12th, I had got out of the shower and felt a slight burn on the head of my penis right below my urethra from the water dripping on it. I didn’t think much of it and the next morning I noticed a couple small open cuts/tears right below my urethra. It didn’t bleed or ooze. The next night I went to sleep for 2 nights straight, my penis around that area was in slight pain and discomfort which felt sharp and some tingle/burn. This was about 17-18 days after I received oral sex from a woman. Ironically I did masturbate kind of hard but with lotion a few hours before I noticed the small cuts/tears on my penis gland.
So could masturbating too hard possibly cause a couple small tear/cut on my penis gland under my urethra? Or does actual genital Hsv1 cause a couple small cuts/tears on the penis gland for primary outbreak like I had described? I never seen any lesions with fluid filled of any sort, just the small cut/tear.
As of right now it still stings a tiny bit when urine touches it, but I’ve noticed it’s healed some in the past few days. I’m just very curious and need to know. Thank you.
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Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner
6 months ago
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Probably both rough masturbation and HSV 1 genital infection might cause breaks in the penile skin. More often, herpes would appear as water blisters but if you missed that stage, you may have seen an open lesion. Having had that swab tested would have been a good idea but likely too late now.
have you ever in your life had a cold sore on your lip or inside your nose? If yes, then it is very unlikely that you would now acquire HSV 1 genitally.
Terri
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6 months ago
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Oh okay. When I felt the slight pain and noticed the small open tear/cut, it was right after the masturbation so that’s leaning me more towards that instead of Hsv1 but at this point I really don’t know. I didn’t see any water blisters on my penis. Right now it’s been about 9 days since I discovered this and it’s almost fully healed if not fully healed. I mainly assumed it was from masturbation so I didn’t get it swabbed and I also received Oral sex again last night.
I also have not ever had a cold sore on or inside of my nose from what I can remember.
One other thing is that about 5 years ago I had a pretty bad outbreak on my penis which looked like herpes. It was red blisters, lesions that burst, oozed and crusted and took about 2 weeks to heal. I had a lot of unprotected vaginal sex back then and also received a lot of oral sex and since then until now, I’ve tested multiple times and all came back negative for Hsv1 and Hsv2 despite having that bad break out on my penis. Could I already have Herpes in my blood but it’s not enough to test positive on the IGG blood test? Or could I just be immune to Herpes?
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Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner
6 months ago
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Interesting. The outbreak sounds concerning - I take it that you didn't not have that swab tested at the time?
The IgG test for HSV 1 misses 30% of infections, compared to the gold standard herpes western blot done only at the University of Washington (anyone can send blood there for testing)
Terri
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6 months ago
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I was very worried during that time. I did not have a swab done. That happened in 2019 and since then I’ve tested for Hsv1 and Hsv2 IGG test about 5 times and came back negative every single time. Most recent test was about 11 months ago which was negative. I have heard about the IGG test missing up to 30% of infections.
6 months ago
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And one last thing. Since I noticed the open tear and started feeling slight pain about 17-18 days after my last insertive oral sex encounter. Would that make it a high chance that it could not be genital Hsv1 related since it was several days past the 10 day mark? I’ve seen on some other posts about genital Hsv showing symptoms up to 10 days after exposure.
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Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner
6 months ago
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The timing is not correct for a presentation of a new herpes infection, no. While a long incubation time like that is possible, it is highly unlikely.
If I had to take an educated guess, I would say it is unlikely that this is due to HSV 1, but a western blot when 3 months have passed since the last unprotected encounter, would tell you with more clarity. Until then, if it ever shows up again, have it swab tested for herpes please, just to be more clear about this question.
Terri
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