[Question #5817] Chance of HSV2 contraction and a bit of advice?

21 months ago

Sighhhh..... I (male) just had protected vaginal sex with a women who waited until afterward to tell me that she was HSV2 positive. She says she has not had an outbreak in 5 years, and is not on antivirals. When we had sex she was on her period — there was very little blood but some of it definitely got on the base-half of my penis after I took the condom off. I feel like a fool for not asking her her status beforehand, but anyways.....

1. What would be my risk of contracting HSV2 from this encounter?

2. How long need I wait until I get tested? Must I truly suffer the slings and arrows of my imaginative mind for 16 weeks before testing, in the absence of symptoms?

3. I am seeing another partner regularly, in an open relationship. Do I need to tell her about my exposure? How long should I wait until we have sex again?

4. I fingered this woman as well. Is there a chance of herpes whitlow even if I had no open cuts on my hands and fingers?

Please help. Thank you.

21 months ago

Correction the second part of my question — do I need to get tested at all?

Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner

21 months ago

A single condom protect encounter with someone who hasn't had an outbreak in 5 years I would consider to be very low risk.

If you want to be tested, and I'm not at a clear that you need to be, you should wait at least 6 weeks for a preliminary result - that result you can count on with 70% certainty. with no symptoms, i think you can count on it with greater certainty.

I think herpes whitlow is really unlikely but if you acquire it, you will have noticeable symptoms on your finger.

In terms of your regular partner - you can share with that person my opinion that this is very low orisk. whether you actually do it or not is your call.

You are in an open relationship, you did your best by using a condom and a single exposure, with a condom with someone having very few outbreaks is just very low risk.

Terri

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21 months ago

Terri,

Thank you so much for your reply. You’ve skillfully addressed all my concerns. I’ve decided to tell my partner because I felt it was the right thing to do.

A couple of follow-ups:

1. If I don’t have symptoms for X number of days, I can more or less reassured that I didn’t contract herpes. What is X, here?

2. Would you advise not having sex with my partner for 6 weeks, longer, less time, at all? I live in Japan where sexual education is seriously lacking so I imagine she would expect me to make this call, as she is rather uninformed about such matters.

Thank you for your patience.

Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner

21 months ago

1. IF people are going to develop symptoms with a new infection, and not all do, they would do so within 2-10 days, maybe 14 at the outside. The average is 5.5 days.

2. I'm not clear that 6 weeks is any magic timeline. Do you mean based on a negative IgG at that time? I would say that if you have had no symptoms, the sex was protected, the risk is so low.

Terri

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21 months ago

Terri, thanks again.

Final question:

Can HSV2 cause a clear penile discharge in men? And is it common to experience headaches and flu-like symptoms without any sores?

Thank you!

21 months ago

Asking a lot here but if I could sneak this one in —

Someone told me the following. Is it rubbish?

“You can test now, with a type specific IgG blood test.”

21 months ago

You can disregard the last question about testing.

My headache and feverish symptoms have basically already gone away, and it has been only 5 days since exposure. If it was an outbreak, the symptoms such as headache would likely last from 2-4 weeks, correct??

Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner

21 months ago

The only reason you would test now is to obtain a baseline result which you could compare to a result in the future.

Herpes can cause a clear discharge in some people but if you had herpes lesions in the urethra causing that discharge you would also have pretty remarkable pain with urination.

Symptoms with new herpes can last anywhere from a few days to weeks, depending a lot upon if you had prior HSV 1 and acquired HSV 2.

It is NOT common with a new herpes infection to have only a headache and nothing else, no

Terri

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