I have waited three months since the last sexual encounter that I had. I preformed unprotected oral sex on a guy(i am a girl) and the guy didn't have an outbreak. About a week later the guy told me he had gotten hsv2 from a girl that he had sex with after me. This was still a little sketchy to me so I waited the three months, had no outbreaks, and went to get a igg blood test done. My results came back and I tested negative for hsv1 and my results for hsv2 were equivocal with a 1.02. If I was exposed three months ago then wouldn't the igg test be much higher? Should I consider this a positive? If I had some of the hsv2 antibodies in my system wouldn't that be counted as a positive? I'm just a little confused. Could you shed some light on the subject? If I go back in 6 weeks like they want me to for another test wouldn't I just test positive because maybe it's equivocal because it's too early though I was told that 3 months after exposure should make for a reliable test. 

I think I answered this elsewhere on this board, right?  I think you have two posts going. Let me know if not, OK?  I clearly remember that 1.02!

Terri
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I do have 2 post going on but since I also paid for this one I wanted to ask some other questions. So lets just pretend I do have oral hsv2. What are my transmission risks. I would love to know kissing without the appearance of an outbreak, what is the possibility that I give this to someone orally as well and then if they preformed oral on me I would get hsv2 genitally. Should I treat this as oral hsv1? Or is there less of a risk with oral hsv2? From the time of exposure when would it be safe to kiss someone? How much is the viral shedding with this? Now, still pretending I do have it, what do I do as in lifestyle. I hear a bunch of people work out and eat healthy, is that what I will also have to do to control this disease? 

HSV 2 orally sheds on about 1% of days in a year.  We have no specific information on transmission of oral HSV 2.  Once you have HSV 2 in one location, it is extremely unlikely you would get it in a new place (genital).  Eating healthy foods is good and getting exercise is always beneficial to the immune system.  Treatment for oral herpes does not depend upon the type of herpes that it is.

Terri
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Thanks so much for all your help, I really appreciate it. I only have a few more questions. Would it be beneficial for me to treat oral hsv2 like oral hsv1? Since hsv1 sheds more than oral hsv2. How long after an outbreak is it okay to kiss someone, still referring to hsv1? When someone gets oral hsv1 as a child do they still need to take the same precautions as someone who has had it for a few months? Or the longer this is in your body the less likely it is that you will transmit it? Will I always need to use protection when preforming oral on someone? 

All recurrent oral herpes is treated in the same way, since almost all of it is HSV 1.  We know that people with oral HSV 1 shed virus on 25% of days, so when you asking about kissing after an outbreak, my response is that even with no sores present the virus is shed on 25% of days.  Even if someone acquires HSV 1 as a child, they can still shed virus years later.  The person who acquires it only a few months prior will likely shed more than the person who has had herpes since childhood.  Whether you use condoms when giving oral sex to someone else depends upon whether they are also infected and how much they are concerned about acquiring HSV 1 genitally.

I think we've really covered all the bases here between your two posts.  Any future questions about this would be based on anxiety and conjecture and I believe it's best for this to be our final post together.  Thank you for using the forum to acquire accurate information about sexually transmitted infections.

Terri
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