I have recently had sex with a regular partner who didn’t tell me they had a cold sore, performed oral sex on me but I haven’t had any symptoms so far genitally. My question is that I’ve had protected and unprotected sex with a lot of people (judge at will), could I have already been exposed to the virus before and am unlikely to present symptoms? Is there also a chance I haven’t caught it or may have just caught it orally?
There is more than one variant of Herpes. You could already have one in your system and catch the other. Did your partner have active lesions or a burning sensation without lesions? How long since the perceived exposure? USUALLY, after 10 days-2 week you would be considered "safe". You can even have Herpes on your finger. Called Whit-low's finger. I use to date a girl that had genital herpes. We were careful not to have any type of sex at her outbreak area when she had an outbreak. Got a lot of BJs and handjobs. Sometimes the work arounds can be fun. I never had any symptoms of Herpes. Some people also seem to be more naturally resistant but it is like Russian roulette.
I'm fortunate enough to have that. I caught it when I was in high school. You've heard me drone on about condoms before. That's largely the reason, but I'm also aware of HIV/AIDS. That's something I don't have, but my buddy got it supposedly. I didn't hear it from him. I heard it from someone else. I don't know. Anyway... OP lots and lots of people have that. It's not new and while it is horrible and rotten, it's not the end of the world. I would avoid it, and I don't recommend it. Also, when I get tested for STDs, it comes back without showing up. At all. It's not detectable. But.. and there's a BIG but... It never goes away. I don't know how contagious it is. Like when the OP talks about contracting during outbreaks only... I don't know how that works. I only ever had one outbreak; when I first got it. & then I took Valtrex. & That was it.
I contracted HSV-1 Herpes Simplex Virus or cold sores long before I became sexually active. It is not an STD. I get an outbreak from stress, to much sun, or on rare occasions a common cold. The OP could have already been exposed to HSV-1 but might never display any symptoms. I also have had protected and unprotected sex with a lot of women and not contracted HSV-2. But if I am displaying an outbreak I refrain from sex, especially oral, with a partner until it clears up usually within a couple of weeks.
I read the virus stays hidden up in the nerve endings. every time it shows itself you have to treat it with blistex or something similar. other than that it's gasoline and matches
Okay... So, rewind thirty years. In 1997, I contracted what was then affectionately referred to as herpes simplex b. (down there...) Man! It stung and I remember vividly like I mean as though it were yesterday all the thoughts and feelings I had about STDs. There is a stigma that is very potent and real about herpes simplex b. Particularly if we haven't experienced the sheer sorrow that is contracting an STD, and particularly your first STD, we probably have a distinct, legitimate, and really rather normal aversion and instinct to avoid the person who has it, or at least not to talk about it. Taboo. Well, it's back... Just in time for Halloween! I noticed several days ago discomfort... I thought, "Great. I've mishandled myself again..." or something like that. Or maybe that something else had happened - sometimes there can be sensitivity with that type of skin because it's rather delicate compared to say a hand or foot... And then... a cold sore! "What on earth!?" I thought. My fiance lives in a different country, I'm not sexually active, and I haven't been with anyone at all since the middle-2000s... But I recognized the little suckers. I called the emergency room out of literal impatience for the medical system in the United States. They said, "come on down...". I called my health insurance and bitched and whined about not having access to healthcare on weekends. They explained that I was covered and that it would be fine if I wanted to head over to the emergency room. So I went. The doctor was younger than me.. But he seemed qualified and spoke in terms that made me feel like he had at least seen a cold sore before and was able to make a positive or negative diagnosis (sometimes you wonder...). Then we went to an exam room. He brought a witness... Then I showed him what I was seeing - which looks an awful lot more like a cold sore than any kind of abrasion incurred during normal activity. "Yep." he said, and issued a prescription. So, it brought back to the front of my mind though the whole STD/STI conundrum... It's SAD. And it's hard... It feels like no one cares when you get this, and like no one understands... Because no one talks about it (it's VERY taboo), it's a very lonely affliction. Well I just wanted everyone to know they're not alone.
