[Question #13369] Partner tested reactive for HSV-1 and HSV-, continued

7 hours ago

1. I felt a little confused by the answers to my initial post on this. In the first set of questions I asked, you stated “ ….making a conscious decision to take a small risk, as you have already been doing, and move on with kissing and receiving oral sex from her.” I was just trying to clarify if you meant unprotected oral sex in this statement?

2. In terms of my concern about infidelity, it came from a place where my trust was breached. At the time we first started dating, before we were exclusive, she was a victim of sexual assault. She did not tell me or anyone else about it until about 4 months after it happened. Prior to the start of our sexual relationship, we had a discussion where she disclosed her HSV-2 diagnosis. I later had a discussion about how I thought regular STI screenings are important, I had recently been tested and everything was negative. She told me at that time she had been tested a few months prior and was negative, but was not tested for HSV given her prior diagnosis of HSV-2. She never got tested after the sexual assault which happened when she was either highly intoxicated or possibly drugged at bar, unable to give consent. She had unprotected sex with a stranger. She never got tested after the sexual assault prior to our sexual relationship starting, so I was very hurt given our discussions.

Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner

4 hours ago

1. Yes

2. OK, now I understand your concern about trust. But in terms of your question, she almost certainly had HSV 1 prior to her acquisition of HSV 2 so there is no concern her about infidelity in that respect. She made a mistake by not getting screened after the assault BUT she did disclose her HSV 2 status which is really tough so maybe there is some grace there to be taken

Terri

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1 hours ago

Thanks for the quick reply.

Do you think there would be any value in her looking back through her past test results to see if she had previously tested positive for HSV-1? Or would this be a moot point since even kissing someone could have resulted in HSV-1 infection? I just get this sick feeling in my stomach any time I think about the sexual assault and wondering if she could have contracted it at that time. I know this sounds unlikely based on you saying HSV2 seems to be protective against HSV1 infection. That being said, I suppose there wouldn’t be a way to pinpoint the exact time of infection.