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What Are The Chances Of Herpes Transmission Through Unprotected Oral Sex?
I am a 60 yo white male. A 58 yo white woman I met on match.com invited me to her bedroom on our second date. Without discussing our sexual history, I gave her unprotected oral sex. We then kissed for a few minutes and she gave me unprotected oral sex. After our oral sex, she told me she d tested positive 5+ years ago for HSV2 but thought I was safe because her gyno told her she was only contagious when having an outbreak, which she has never had. My question is: what is my risk from this one encounter.
Mon, 22 Jun 2015
Welcome to HCM. I read your question carefully and I understand your concern.
HSV-2 is usually transmitted by vaginal and/or anal sex. But, you can also get infected with HSV-2 from one person's genitals to your mouth, resulting in oral herpes. By kissing usually is transmitted HSV-1. It can also spread from mouth to genitals during oral sex (fellatio, cunnilingus and/pr analingus). This leads to genital herpes.
In persons with asymptomatic HSV2 infection, genital HSV shedding occurs in 10% of days and on most of those days the person has no signs or symptoms. So, the virus may spread also during times when there are no symptoms and from sites that are seemingly inactive.
In some studies of transmission of genital herpes, the anual risk of transmission averaged 7-10%/year for those abstaining from sex during outbrakes.
In conclusion, the best way to avoid transmission is to abstain from sexual activity during outbreaks and to use condoms the rest of the times (even though condoms afford some protections, since they might not cover the site of an active virus).
I hope this information was useful. I wish you a good health
HSV-2 is usually transmitted by vaginal and/or anal sex. But, you can also get infected with HSV-2 from one person's genitals to your mouth, resulting in oral herpes. By kissing usually is transmitted HSV-1. It can also spread from mouth to genitals during oral sex (fellatio, cunnilingus and/pr analingus). This leads to genital herpes.
In persons with asymptomatic HSV2 infection, genital HSV shedding occurs in 10% of days and on most of those days the person has no signs or symptoms. So, the virus may spread also during times when there are no symptoms and from sites that are seemingly inactive.
In some studies of transmission of genital herpes, the anual risk of transmission averaged 7-10%/year for those abstaining from sex during outbrakes.
In conclusion, the best way to avoid transmission is to abstain from sexual activity during outbreaks and to use condoms the rest of the times (even though condoms afford some protections, since they might not cover the site of an active virus).
I hope this information was useful. I wish you a good health
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