Herpes

herpes?????

how long does it take for the first outbreak to appear after you are first infected with herpes (below the belt) i have oral herpes (well cold sores) and my boyfriend kissed me (sore was almost healed) and gave me oral. can i have below the belt herpes now?? if so is that chance high or low? he did not have the sore i did...

Public Comments

1. thats the things with herpes..it can be weeks, months or even years later.
2. the only way u could get genital herpes is if someone with oral herpes gave u oral sex. if he didn't have a sore then chances are kind of low but get checked out if your worried.
3. If you had the sore on your mouth, I think it should be him worried about getting oral herpes (cold sores) off you, if he doesn't have them already. If he doesn't have them and he kissed you when you have an open sore, there is a very high risk he will have become infected with cold sores. If either he does or doesn't already have them, though, and he kissed you first then gave you oral, it is highly unlikely he could have given you genital herpes. Firstly, the virus only survives a few seconds outside your mouth - so it would be unlikely to make it down to your genitals in sufficient quantities to infect you. Secondly, and most inportantly, if you already have that particular herpes virus orally, you are highly unlikely to catch it genitally. For example, if you get cold sores and your boyfriend gets cold sores and he gives you oral sex, it is extremely unlikely you would catch genital herpes this way - the antibodies you have from the infection on your mouth protect you against it. There are two risk factors however - if you have only just caught cold sores yourself on the mouth there is a higher risk, because your body hasn't yet developed antibodies, and it is safer for him to avoid giving you oral sex when he has an active sore just in case - in rare cases, it can overpower your immune defence being in contact with an active infection like that. There is a reason why virtually everyone has cold sores and practices oral sex and a far, far smaller percentage of the population has genital hsv-1 (the virus that causes your cold sores). It is because those who already have it orally have a high degree of protection against catching it genitally. My boyfriend gets cold sores (oral hsv-1) and I have genital hsv-1 that I caught form his oral infection. My outbreaks are mild genitally so I often don't even realise I am having one, and we have had sex quite a few times when I have been having one without knowing and he hasn't caught it genitally, probably because he has had cold sores for so long. I still won't kiss him when he has a cold sore though, even though I shouldn't catch it - just to be on the safe side. For those who never had cold sores before, it is very easy to catch genital hepres through receiving oral sex from a partner with cold sores, even if that partner does NOT have a sore present at the time. You can be infectious when you have no symptoms. Neither I nor my sister caught cold sores as children, so we both caught genital herpes through receiving oral sex from our first steady boyfriends who did have cold sores. Neither my sister's husband nor my boyfriend had a cold sore at the time they infected us. Do be aware if you ever have a boyfriend who doesn't have cold sores, and you give him oral sex, you can give him genital herpes even when you have no symptoms. As to yourself, I think you are pretty safe. And genital herpes symptoms usually show up within 2-4 days of infection.