My boyfriend and I both have genital herpes, each for over 10 years (from past partners). We have been together about 1 month. We do just about everything you can do. A few days ago I was performing oral sex on him and we knew he had healing lesions, about 10 days old. We assumed that we did not have to worry about any of this anymore as we both had HSV-2. However yesterday I woke up with an odd sore throat but no accompanying cold symptoms. I am worried that I may have picked up the virus off his penis and now it is in the back of my throat and now I will be a cold sore sufferer, even though I have never had a cold sore on my face. I have been online for hours and found research that suggests that cold sore people may have some immunity to genital herpes. However I can find NOTHING on the reverse. Help?

well i doubt this will be much help but as far as i know u can get hsv2 on the mouth but it just isnt as common ...i know the topic is on here somewhere a few pages up ...

Yes you can spread it to your mouth or face...I've heard that it is rare but it happened to my BF. He gave me genital herpes and before I realized that I actually had genital herpes, he gave me oral sex and a few days later he broke out on his face with at least a half dozen sores. He had had cold sores in the past breaking out about once a year with a small normal cold sore but after he caught it(hsv2) from giving me oral sex he now gets only one lesion at a time but he's been getting them every couple months and they can become huge and ugly and they can be up on his cheek or upper lip where as the hsv1 was just on his lip.:dizzy:

I think both people above need to see a dr and get their sores cultured. All the literature I have read and dr's I have spoken with say that once you are infected you can't spread it to another part of your body. For example if the guy has hsv2 on his genitals he is immune from getting it on his face and if he has hsv1 on his face he is immune from getting it on his genitals.

Oh yes you can spread it and I have never read that you CAN'T spread it, just that it is rare. I've even heard of people giving themselves genital herpes from having it on other parts of their body. I have heard of a man that had herpes on his arm for many years and ended up spreading it to the genitals. It is not impossible to spread herpes to parts of your body that you don't think of as a place for herpes like you legs and arms etc...the eyes are the worst place. People with herpes have to be extremely careful not to get herpes in their eyes!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorethroatgirl - If your throat doesn't clear up in a few days I would go see the dr and have them do a culture for hsv but I highly doubt that is what's going on. I have to respectfully disagree with keepsgoin, I have done A LOT of research in this area and have spoken with a lot of professionals and auto-innoculation is very very rare, only proven cases have been when someone first is infected and then transmits the virus to another place on the body. Anyone who has had hsv for more than a year or so is not going to transmit it to anywhere else. Keepsgoin, you are ASSUMING your boyfriend has hsv2 on his face but that may be incorrect, have it cultured and find out for sure.

"....once you are infected you can't spread it to another part of your body."

What doctors have you been talking to? :rolleyes: Just do a google search and you will find tons of articles about spreading herpes to other areas on your own body....eyes, nose, ears, and even just body parts.

Smiley - let me know where those articles are. Everything I have read says you can spread it to other parts of your body only when you are first infected called autoinnoculation, once you have had the virus in your system for a while you can no longer transmit it to other parts of your body.

Smiley - I did google it and it does say you can spread it to other parts of your body but also almost every article says it's rare and you can spread it to other parts of your body only when you are first infected called autoinoculation, once you have had the virus in your system for a while you build up antibodies so you can no longer transmit it to other parts of your body. I still think it's good practice to wash your hands after touching a sore but I wouldn't worry too much about spreading it if you have had it a while. My dr. told me that and Dr. Hansfield a renown std specialist also says the same thing. Westover Clinic which specializes in herpes education and treatment stated, "Adults and children can (but rarely do) transmit the virus from one part of their body to another. This phenomenon is called autoinoculation. Autoinoculation almost always occurs during the first outbreak when the immune system has not yet produced an immune response to the herpes. Auto inoculation is quite uncommon, or many more children would have genital herpes as a result of touching their cold sores and then touching their genitals, as children seem to do."

I have alway's read the same thing that you can spread HSV to other body parts.So since being diagnosed with HSV I make even more sure I keep my hands clean especiialy after using the bathroom or after sex.I guess it is rare but I wont be using the bathroom and then rubbing my itchy eye until I wash my hands.Never have I read that it cannot be spread elswhere.

Man the news keeps getting worse. Does my baby have an immunity to herpes since i gave birth to her? I've kissed her mouth a couple of times as well. Does this mean she could develop herpes as well even with the antibodies.

During oral sex do I need to use a dam

I think both people above need to see a dr and get their sores cultured. All the literature I have read and dr's I have spoken with say that once you are infected you can't spread it to another part of your body. For example if the guy has hsv2 on his genitals he is immune from getting it on his face and if he has hsv1 on his face he is immune from getting it on his genitals.

Yeah my doctor told me the same thing, but then saying that, their NOT always right :rolleyes:

Well, i've heard it's extremely unlikely but not impossible. This is a tricky virus that does what it wants. I'm convinced that i spread my own genital herpes to my mouth via kissing my boyfriend after he performed oral sex on me. Ever since two weeks after the incident, i've been having oral symptoms. Not full blown coldsores, just bumps around and at the edge of my lip. Plus, burning/tingling here and there, occasional throbbing :confused: and these wierd nerve sensations. So i would say it's very possible to get herpes in another location...and i've had genital herpes for seven years. Nothing's that black and white with herpes.

Just a few days ago, I was doing some reading at some nurse's web site...she said to be careful when you have a cold sore when you are drying with your towel and to not dry your face and then touch the towel to another part of you body because she said that "FINALLY" it had been discovered(realized) that you really can spread it to yourself on other part of your body and that just until recently it was assumed that you could not.:rolleyes:

Yep- this oral thing is icky alright!
After I first unknowingly contracted GH (having sex, even using a condom with another man) but didn't know it yet, my boyfriend ended up getting his first outbreak horribly on his genitals, face & throat all at the same time. I felt awful about it. He knew I had been with somone else a week before and that we used a condom so we felt relatively safe being together again.
That was years ago & now I'm married to someone who doesn't have it, and I have scared him so bad about the oral thing-so oral sex from him to me never happens. :( I don't blame him, though it does make me feel a bit like a leper.

Well, i've heard it's extremely unlikely but not impossible. This is a tricky virus that does what it wants. I'm convinced that i spread my own genital herpes to my mouth via kissing my boyfriend after he performed oral sex on me. Ever since two weeks after the incident, i've been having oral symptoms. Not full blown coldsores, just bumps around and at the edge of my lip. Plus, burning/tingling here and there, occasional throbbing :confused: and these wierd nerve sensations. So i would say it's very possible to get herpes in another location...and i've had genital herpes for seven years. Nothing's that black and white with herpes.

Very well said! You are exactly right...this is an extremely tricky virus, hence the widespread problem that it is! This virus has been around for YEARS and still, Dr.'s and researchers have not been unable to develop a cure. The reason they say "it's rare" to infect other body parts, etc., is because IT IS uncommon, there's no disputing that. If we think about this for a moment, let's do the math. We know that 1 in every 4 females has HSV and 1 in every 5 males, now multiply those by the tens of thousands....that are medically diagnosed and actually aware they have H!! So what does "rare" or "uncommon" really mean in the big picture? It's really a generalized statement. Why? Because the fact of the matter is that as "uncommon" as it is, it's clearly still a potential risk as it is definitely "poossible"...and because there is really no "accurate" number out there to say how many people actually carry the virus, "uncommon" and "rare" can mean many things in this particular situation.

That said, there is indeed no black and white when it comes to H my friends. We do our best in dealing with it and in protecting ourselves and our partners, it's all we can do....along with hope for the best! :)

I haven't been faced with many of these issues since my diagnosis in August'06. I believe my b/f at that time is the one who gave it to me, almost certain of it...but that's neither here nor there at this point. I broke up with him very soon after finding out I had HSV (and I still don't know technically which strain I have). I've been single since, by choice. I feel it's necessary (for me) to take this time and really deal with the hand I've recently been dealt. My Dr. mentioned it will take 6 mths to a year before this virus really establishes itself in my body, which in turn triggers that of the antibodies....in a sense reconstructing the immune system until it's strong enough to fight back. So my theory is why the heck drag someone else through it during this first year?! :eek: Guess I'll have to see what happens when Mr. Wonderful does come along....we'll see just how wonderful he his when I'm faced with sharing my secret. Not looking forward to it, but at least experience has taught me there are those who are worthy of me and those who are not.

I'm amazed I still have as much self-confidence as I do after being hit with the "you're positive for herpes". And on that note, I have to give much praise and thanks to many of you in this forum...I really don't know what I would have done without this forum. It has been the best outlet and form of therapy that I KNOW I could and would not have received any where else. So again, thank you peeps!! :)

Another thing I was reading is that sometimes people get together and think "well we both have GH so we are safe to have sex without worry". Well sounds logical right? No because often times people do not realize that you can have hsv 1 OR 2 genitally and the couple may have 1 and the other may have 2 and they will infect each with the other's strain and the mess starts all over again with the innitial OBs etc....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!! !! Do the nightmares ever end? HAHA!:rolleyes: Even though most of us here(which means we are researching for answers) realize that genital herpes can be either type 1 or type 2, the vast majority of people just think that "genital herpes is genital herpes" and most people do not even realize that a cold sore IS herpes!

This thread has been around a while and I cannot remember if earlier I told of how my BF gave herpes to himself but I'll say again for someone new that may have just joined. My BF had this little red bump on his penis(and had gotten them for years)...neither he nor I ever associated that with herpes until I had a full blown initial OB shortly after we had sex and he had a sore on him. Well before we realized what it was...I was just having a feeling of possibly a bladder infection with painful urination and frequent urination...we were having oral sex. So soon after that he broke out in sores on his cheeks and mouth and chin. So he actually gave himself oral herpes! Sheeeeeesh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So now, even though he had gotten cold sores like normal every day cold sores(on the lips) for all his life, NOW he gets these huge ugly big old sores that will be on his cheek or chin and not hardly ever just on his lips like a normal hsv1 cold sore is. I know they say it's rare but it does happen!

Keepsgoing that is so right as most people hear the word "herpes" and that is about as far as things get. There is so much to learn about this virus and it is ever so unpredictable. Simply b/c something is "rare" doesn't mean it's fine to throw caution aside b/c that is when you are most likely to up those "rare" statistics.

As for transfering herpes around the body, i have NEVER used the same towel on my face as i would to dry off any area below the waste line. Not even before i ever got genital herpes. I have one towel for hair and face and another towel for other areas. As for genital areas i don't even dry there with a towel i simply dab with some toilet paper. I don't want to run the risk of someone catching my herpes. It is a rarety off a towel, but test have shown that especially whilst the towel is damp it can be transferred.

Sexually is another matter. Of course if one or the other shows signs/symptoms then we leave sex alone and if you are adventurous/imaginative enough then there are other ways around the sex ban during those times. When there are no signs or symptoms i guess it's different and there is that fraction of a possibility of getting type 2 on your face if your partner has it below the waste and you give him/her oral. If you do this i'd say you would have to be prepared to suffer the consequences "if" you transferred it to your face. Some might call it an impossibility, but knowing my chances i'd be making it a possibility. So far so good and i hope it stays that way. I already get the odd cold sore on my lip from time to time since i was a child and i'd not like to add type 2 to that.