[Question #6407] Genital herpes risk

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68 months ago
Hello, I am inquiring about the risk of transmission of genital herpes. I (30m) had penetrative vaginal intercourse with a woman 3 days ago. We used a condom, and sex lasted for about 30 minutes. I remember seeing the condom still on close to the end of the encounter, maybe 20-25 minutes in, but when complete I saw that the condom had broken. She then informed me that she has genital herpes, but that she was not having an outbreak. I took a shower afterwards, and washed my genitals with soap, but not vigorously. I was curious as to the risk for genital herpes transmission from female to male for a single encounter like the one described. No symptoms yet.
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Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner
68 months ago
The risk for a single encounter with mostly protected intercourse is low, certainly.  Do you know if she is taking daily antiviral medicine?  If you are going to develop symptoms, they will happen in the next week or perhaps sooner.  I would say, as a wild guess, that the risk is around 1%.  If she was taking daily medication it's probably quite a bit less than that.  I sure wish she had told you prior to having sex so you could have made a choice.  Do you know if she has HSV 1 or HSV 2?  And have you ever been tested to know that you do or do not have HSV 1 or HSV 2?

Terri
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