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Possibility of having genital HSV 1 AND 2?

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elizabeth09077
elizabeth09077

I posted another post detailing my current recurrent outbreak but long story short it is bad enough to make me question if I have now contracted genital HSV-2 in addition to my existing HSV-1. To sum things up when I was diagnosed in April I was in a long term monogamous relationship. That relationship has since ended , but recently things have rekindled and we have had unprotected sex a handful of times (he is aware of my herpes- has always been comfortable without condoms). In between the breakup and rekindling he has "hooked up" with two girls but clarified that he did not have sex with them (he would not lie about this) which is all I wanted to know before having unprotected sex. However, since an outbreak was triggered just after starting up sex again and it is relatively severe I can't help but wonder if he contracted HSV-2 from dry humping or something and is asymptomatic and gave it to me so now I have both types genitally and this is my initial HSV 2 outbreak. Is this even possible? So hard to find answers online so wondering if anyone has any first hand knowledge on this. Thanks!!

0 likes, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • mark50520
    mark50520 elizabeth09077

    Posted

    I saw your other post and the same thought did occur to me.

    Having HSV1 gives you immunity from further HSV1 infections, but provides no immunity to HSV2 infections. So yes it could be a first outbreak of HSV2

    The best way to be sure would be a swab. That would provide a clear link between the outbreak and the strain of virus. However swabs only reliably give a positive result in the first 2-3 days of the outbreak.

    • elizabeth09077
      elizabeth09077 mark50520

      Posted

      You are probably right but getting swabbed sounds so terrible, and things are already healing anyway. I think what I am going to do is hold out until there is another one. If it is soon after this one that would indicate type 2 so I will go back in if that happens. If not, phew- just a bad recurrence of type 1. Thanks for replying!

  • Ahhh123
    Ahhh123 elizabeth09077

    Posted

    if you have hsv 1 genital you cant get hsv 2 genital . i was told you cant have both im same spot

    • mark50520
      mark50520 Ahhh123

      Posted

      Are you sure? That's not what I read. My understanding is that there's no cross immunity between the two types

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