Oral herpes 2 transmission risks

[Bbetty123]

I am a heterosexual woman who one month ago gave unprotected oral sex to a man. I noticed a reddish mole on his penis shaft, asked if he had herpes, he told me it was a birth mark, I believed him. I always use condoms when having vaginal sex. Within 4 days I had a serious thrush infection in my throat which was so swollen I could not speak. I took antibiotics and steroids and it cleared up within a week. This was accompanied with some lethargy and mild diarrhea which I assumed was related to the antibiotics.  Two weeks ago I took a blood test and the doctor told me it is herpes 2. I don't have the test results and am not aware if it was an igg test. The blood test was for all studs and he only ran a Test for herpes type 2 not type 1. I will be retested in 2 weeks, 6 weeks after assumed exposure date, in an std clinic.
Question, if I got herpes 2 orally, which I assume because I have never seen a blister anywhere on my body ever, how can I spread it and how do I know when to avoid sex completely because I am having an outbreak if I don't know with certainty where it entered me body? I am again assuming the back of my mouth.
If it is in my mouth can I spread it to other parts of my mouth with my own saliva or flem?
Can I not engage again in unprotected oral sex or unprotected vaginal sex?
Can I spread it from kissing?
Can I spread it from sharing a water bottle with my child?
Can I spread it through vaginal sex?
Will reoccurrence be reaccompanied by thrush and could that have been the initial outbreak? It was not cultured.
What else do I need to know?
Thank you.... Totally paranoid.


This discussion is related to Rates of asymptomatic ORAL shedding of HSV-2.

[feelingundone]

Please don't multi post questions on other old threads. I answered your questions.  Next time please start a new thread with your questions.  Thank you

[Sven0730]

Dear Dr. I hope this message finds you well.i am writing out of concern about hsv2 and have some questions. I met a girl and we had some deep kissing. No sexual contact between genitals, no oral se x. She takes valvyclovir regularly. She has not had a break out in over a year. Do I need to be concerned of contracting hsv2 through oral exchange such as deep kissing? Thank you!

[Life360_Dave]

Most experts say that numbers dont mean anything. Only are significent if above 3.5 and since 3.5 is the cut off number for false positive concerns, the lab maybe using that for confirmation numbers. But if you have a number like around 20, it could infer really quite some time. These are proteins pickup on the test strip and do take time to multiply in theory.

[Bbetty123]

You guys are so nice to help me...
There was no number given, it showed only above. I will be tested again in 2 weeks.  Quite some time sounds further back than April but I guess that is subjective. Or you think it is older? Could it be higher then 3.5 if exposed in April? Shouldn't I have noticed an outbreak? At most I had an ingrown hair.

[Life360_Dave]

8 weeks is a good indicator, so the sex in april may be the time but as Fleetwood suggests youve had this for quite some time. I will say one thing which is to claify your test results. Is it saying your number was above 3.5 and the symbol > does indicate above and most labs stop at 5.

[Bbetty123]

Thank you. June 3rd was the date of the unprotected oral sex. So that is 20 days. I had a different partner in April, but you seem to think that is also too recent. He is the only one I haven't called yet to ask.
My daughter is seven. I assume it is standard procedure during pregnancy for the OBGYN to test for herpes. So I suppose that is my window. Still going through shock I think. I have been reading a lot but not finding much on dormancy. I am concerned about where it may be so as not to spread it since I have never noticed it.
Any advise on this?

[Fleetwood20]

16 days is quite a short amount of time to register >3.5 on a Herpeselect test for example, but not unfeasible. More likely though you have had the infection for more than 3 months. This could extend to years, there is no telling.

[Bbetty123]

June 7th throat infection looked like thrush/candida. June 23rd blood test.  I thought I had prior blood test from this past March and also last July but seems herpes was not done with the others though I do recall asking for it.
Do you mean quite some time as in >6 months or even years?

[Fleetwood20]

Yes this looks quite conclusive you have HSV2.

However I think you have had this for quite some time and it is more likely in your genital area and not your throat.

How long from the emergence of the sore throat to the blood test?

[Bbetty123]

I meant positive >3.5 were the results. Index value results were >=1.1 being positive and <=.9 being negative.

[Bbetty123]

I went to the dr today to claim my test results from last week. It was igg type II specific test only, no type I test taken though I have siblings with that and may have had a cold sore as a child. I didn't get a number only stated positive <3.5.

What does this mean? Dr said it means positive and just accept it.
Is another set of tests warranted?
Could I possibly have it dormant in my body for some time now and it is not at all related to the incident I identified in my first post?
If it is dormant is it still contagious?

Thank you.