Oral HSV 2?!
Question: Convoluted story. I had really bad strep throat, and underwent antibiotics for a couple weeks. The step seemed to go away. Just after, I gave unprotected oral sex to someone. I also underwent a LOT of stress during this time. About a week or two later, my throat turned white and I became very ill, high fever, didn't respond to antibiotics. After 3 weeks of having no clue what was wrong, they tested for herpes via a throat culture. It came back positive for simplex 2. I know it's rare to have an oral hsv 2 infection. I guess I'm wondering if it's more likely that I caught the infection with a newly healed strep throat, or is it more likely I caught it long before (I had a long term partner I discovered had unprotected sex with many, many others while we were together), had been asymptomatic, and it took the stress of illness and life events at that time to give me an outbreak? Herpes is herpes, but I'm curious to know if you can have such a vicious outbreak years after contracting it.
Answers: Convoluted story. I had really bad strep throat, and underwent antibiotics for a couple weeks. The step seemed to go away. Just after, I gave unprotected oral sex to someone. I also underwent a LOT of stress during this time. About a week or two later, my throat turned white and I became very ill, high fever, didn't respond to antibiotics. After 3 weeks of having no clue what was wrong, they tested for herpes via a throat culture. It came back positive for simplex 2. I know it's rare to have an oral hsv 2 infection. I guess I'm wondering if it's more likely that I caught the infection with a newly healed strep throat, or is it more likely I caught it long before (I had a long term partner I discovered had unprotected sex with many, many others while we were together), had been asymptomatic, and it took the stress of illness and life events at that time to give me an outbreak? Herpes is herpes, but I'm curious to know if you can have such a vicious outbreak years after contracting it.
As you've already pointed out, its impossible to know for certain where or how you got HSV2 orally. Since an initial outbreak tends to cause flu-like symptoms, however, it is possible that you were experiencing your initial outbreak. Three weeks is a LONG time to have herpes symptoms, though.
My guess (and its only a guess) is that you recently contracted it.
The most important thing, in my mind, is to be very careful about giving oral sex to men in the future. You might think about having them wear a condom when you do. And you might consider taking antivirals.
It would be a sad thing to give your oral HSV2 to someone on their genitals without warning them about the risk, and taking all the precautions possible.
Sorry about your diagnosis. Good luck.
here are over 65 million Americans currently living with an STD, 19 million new STD infections each year, one in three sexually active men and women living with Herpes, and about 50% of all sexually active Americans affected by HPV. One-third of all single and dating Americans now exploring online personal ads (BusinessWeek, 2006) and niche dating has never been hotter.