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Anal Herpes Exposure

What is my risk of contracting herpes from the following encounter?

I had a one-time, unprotected encounter with a man. He performed oral sex on my penis, we kissed briefly, I briefly did oral sex on him, and I fingered the exterior of his anus hole.

He informed me after the encounter that he has specifically Anal Herpes and takes Valtrex regularly to manage his condition.

After this I immediately rinsed myself off in rubbing alcohol on all potentially exposed areas including my mouth.

I have tremendous anxiety now about this. While a lot of what I read already says that my risk of transmission is low, it's not zero.
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Avatar universal
I would agree that your transmission risk is low, and I base that off of medical literature not just a guess.  Here are two links that get to what your asking, which is essentially a numerical probability based on multiple factors (acts and treatment type) https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/198/8/1098/879583 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4006256/.  I would encourage you to get tested if you are truly concerned.  
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207091 tn?1337709493
COMMUNITY LEADER
Agree with cris. I would also add that herpes rarely goes from the genitals to the mouth. Oral hsv2 is rare, so if he has hsv2, it would mean that your chances are really low.

To clarify, there is no actual thing as "specifically anal herpes". Herpes infects nerve groups, and genital herpes infects the sacral ganglia, meaning that it affects the entire genital area. Outbreaks will often appear in the area that you are infected in, so if he was infected anally, he might be getting outbreaks there, but he is also infected in the rest of his genital area.

And he is on Valtrex, which reduces his shedding.

But still, I agree, that your risk is very low. I wouldn't worry at all.
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