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Did I get genital herpes?

Hello,
4 days ago, I had an intimate encounter with a female with known genital herpes. She has had no outbreaks in over a year, NOT on immunosuppressive therapy. Our encounter included skin to skin contact of our bodies in general, but I left my shorts on and she had her underwear on as well. I did finger her with vaginal penetration a few times, NO oral sex or anal sex was involved. The next day or two, I begin noticing tingling along my groin and scrotum area. I checked myself and found NO blisters/sores of any kind along my genitals. The next day, I noticed an isolated skin pimple along my posterior scrotum so I went to my doctor to have this evaluated. My doctor wasn't convinced that this was a herpetic lesion but decided to culture it anyway…I will point out, the pimple was pulled off during the swabbing process and was collected for culturing. Here are my questions (thank you in advance!)

1. Based on my story, what are your thoughts on my risk of transmission? I have heard from this forum that fingering shouldn't transmit it but that along with our close body contact (MINUS genital-genital), I'm not sure if that increases my risk at all.


2. What should I make of this tingling business? It occurs intermittently and a part of me wonders if it is psychosomatic as I really began noticing it after I read up on prodromal symptoms of herpes.

3. If my Viral culture is negative (hope so), should I consider IgG blood testing? I know there are a lot of cases of false positives and I don't know if I would be doing myself any good by entering that carousel, so to speak.
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207091 tn?1337709493
COMMUNITY LEADER
There is absolutely no risk here.

1 - Fingers don't transmit herpes (or any STD), and you had your clothes on. Your genital to genital contact was clothed. You have to have unclothed direct genital to genital contact, usually penetrative, or at least really vigorous rubbing or grinding, in order to transmit.

2 - Maybe psychosomatic/anxiety. Maybe even probably.

3 - No, you don't need a blood test. I don't know what this sore/lesion thing is, but it's not herpes. You had no risk for it. Herpes also doesn't look like a pimple. My guess is that it was a clogged hair follicle or something.

Don't enter that carousel when you had no risk. You're absolutely right to go with your gut on that one. It could take weeks/months and a lot of money to get you off it.
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Ok, so let me give you a bit more detail to see if it changes things...

I was wearing swim trunks that definitely rode up a bit, but my genitals were always covered. My legs however, not so much. There was some level of rubbing or grinding with the handjob but again, particularly my leg in between hers.
I did wash my hands afterwards and made sure not to touch my own genitals with that hand afterwards.

The tingling sensation I am still experiencing, along with a generalized itch along my pubic hair region. Still no signs of lesions or sores. But this tingling also is pretty generalized, like I'd get it down my legs, my arms, knees and groin area. And I remember you saying in someone else's post that HSV2 goes only to the sacral ganglia (boxer short) distribution, so I don't know why I'm getting all these tingling sensations at different areas.

Thanks again for just being awesome and so supportive. You're helping ease the minds of so many people by giving us clear cut data and information!
No, the skin on your legs is too thick for the virus to penetrate. As long as your genitals - and all the mucus membrane skin (the thinner, moister skin - your penis, your anus, etc) was covered, you are fine.

Perhaps you twisted your body funny and have a pinched nerve, or you did it while swimming (I'm assuming that's why you had a bathing suit on). You're right that it only affects the sacral ganglia area. You certainly wouldn't be getting sensations in your arms and such - that sounds like anxiety to me, if it's not a pinched nerve.

Do you even know if she has herpes, or are you assuming she does?

Even if she had genital herpes type 2, and you had full on unprotected penetrative intercourse with her, you'd have about a 1 in 1000 chance of getting it from her, per encounter.

If you were in a long term relationship with her, these are the chances you'd get it:

Ghsv2 transmission, female to male, over the course of a year, assuming sex 2-3 times a week:

Only avoiding sex during an outbreak - 4-5%

Adding condoms OR daily suppression - 2-3%

Adding condoms AND daily suppression - 1-2%

Daily suppression is taking Valtrex or acyclovir every day.

So herpes isn't as infectious as you may think. It certainly won't go through a bathing suit or thick skin on your thighs.

You've been reading my other posts - which awesome for educational purposes - but I sense it's more out of anxiety than education. Is anxiety normally an issue for you? You must have seen me tell others that mental health is just as important as physical health, so consider talking to someone about that. No one wants an STD, but your reaction to this is highly disproportionate to the risk, as you had none.
She is someone that I am still seeing and yes, she definitely has HSV2 genital herpes.

As for anxiety, I don't usually have a whole lot of anxiety but this has definitely gotten to me. I appreciate your thoughts and definitely agree that this could very well be psychosomatic. I will definitely consider some counseling.

Ok, one last update and you can tell me to put a sock in it. Lol

So today during work, I noticed some groin pain along my left groin. It's sort of where the groin lymph nodes would be located along the inguinal line (I work at a medical office).
Still having the tingling kind of all over. No sores, blisters.
I have read that if this was herpes (which we're both somewhat convinced that it isn't likely), could that be the beginning signs of lymph node swelling due to viral introduction?

As I'm typing this I'm beginning to realize the ridiculousness of this question, please take it easy on me. I really do just want to become more informed on atypical presentation and about herpes in general. I feel like public knowledge is overshadowed by the obviously huge stigma around it.

Put a sock in it ;)

You had no risk. I don't know what these symptoms are - psychosomatic or fatigue or what, but it isn't herpes.

Okay, so seriously, if you want to date her for any amount of time, you have to come to terms with this. She has hsv2. This isn't going to change, so you have to figure out if you can handle the very real chance that if you date her, you might get it.

The chances are low, but it could happen.

I gave you the chances above. If all you did was avoid sex - and this is penetrative sex, actual intercourse - you'd have a 4-5% chance of getting it per year. That's a 95-96% chance of NOT getting it. If she takes valtrex or acyclovir OR you use condoms, it drops to 2-3%. Using both is 1-2%.

You both need to learn how this is transmitted. It never goes through clothing. It is only transmitted from her genitals to your genitals, and you both have to be unclothed (at least at the genital area) for this to happen. There needs to be some serious friction and direct skin to skin contact.

If giving oral sex is your thing, you can still do that. Oral hsv2 is very rare, and if it happens, it rarely recurs and rarely sheds, meaning you'd likely never get another outbreak and never transmit it. But it's rare that herpes goes from the genitals to the mouth, and hsv2 doesn't really like the mouth area.

She is not a walking biohazard, and it's really important that you don't treat her that way. Remember that with all your freaking out, she is also freaking out and likely feeling like crap, especially if it's over a non-risk encounter. She isn't just walking around emitting herpes germs.

You mention the stigma for herpes. The stigma is ridiculous for this. I've had herpes for almost 20 years, I guess - more than 15, anyway. It's a blip in my life. There are things that cause way more problems than herpes in relationships than herpes ever will, no matter what your age.

You should read the Herpes Handbook at https://westoverheights.com/herpes/the-updated-herpes-handbook/  It's free, and written by Terri Warren, one of the world's leading experts on herpes.

Whatever decision you come to is okay, just make sure it's an informed decision, and not driven by stigma. If you decide you can't be in this relationship, let her know, but leave her with dignity and care, as you always should.

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