Question:
I have a question, let's say that I have a cold sore and kiss a girl that later performs oral sex on me. What are the chances of then getting HSV1 genitally.

And I know once you have HSV1 you build up antibodies, but let's say my cold sore was the first I ever had. What would be the chances then?

Answer:
What you are suggesting is possible but if its all happening today I would think unlikely. However if it is a longer term situation and she is exposed to coldsores, developes an infection and then has coldsores or viral shedding and performs oral sex on you the statistics would potentially increase.

people do get genital infections of hsv1 and usually it is from a chain of events that lead to contact with the virus.

your antibodies from an oral hsv infection may not protect you 100% against acquiring a genital hsv infection.

Answer:
Caliope,

Thanks for the response. I guess the way I was looking at it is this...

When you have a cold sore everyone warns you to be careful not to touch anything else because you can infect other areas. So in theory, if you kiss someone while you are shedding for instance, then the virus is now on their lips, which if they now perform oral sex on you, will transfer their virus on your genitals. Not sure if that's possible or pretty far fetched.

But it would seem possible because it's kind of like me drinking from a cup with a cold sore, then someone else drinking from the same cup and immediately kissing someone else. Does that mean now both of them are possibly infected?

Answer:
what you suggest is possible but with each transfer the percentage of virus is reduced.

Hypothetically we can imagine the next to impossible:

You have an active coldsore. You have viral particles on your lips. You find someone who doesn't recognize it's a coldsore and isn't yucked out by the oozing sore. You somehow transmit 25 of those viral particles with your kiss. Statistics tells us there are variables such as contact or saliva that could reduce the number of viral particles that can be transferred on to another object or surface after the kiss takes place.

You are imagining that this girl is so fast that she kisses you, whips your pants off, manages to never touch another thing or allow anything to brush against her lips and she can successfully avoid her own saliva and then strategically get that virus onto your skin where you have a small cut and then in the act of oral sex not displace that viral particle with saliva again and it infects the skin in your genital area.

The virus cannot survive very long outside of the human body or host and is damaged by contact with oxygen. It would be next to impossible for that person to then transmit a large number of viral particles to your genitals. Of course since nothing can be ruled out 100% anything is possible.

It is very unlikely statistically. However if you wait until she has a whopping coldsore of her own and ask her to perform oral sex on you the percentages can increase because there is more virus available to transmit.

Okay why play roulette? If you have a coldsore, common sense and decency tell us that we avoid sharing drinks and straws. Remember that more people die from viruses such as the flu or the common cold each year than from hsv and all are transferred just as easily.

Answer:
Excellent explanation and great point Caliope.

I went to my doctor today for a follow up appointment on my wrist injury, and figured I'd ask him that same question, and sure enough he gave me pretty much the same exact response. As he put it, "Nothing is impossible, but you're more likely to get a woman pregnant while she is on birth control and you're wearing a condom that works the way it should..."

I guess that means it is pretty unlikely the given situation would happen. He said even a few seconds between a kiss and then oral sex, the virus would be gone for that instance. Again, just as you said.

The only thing that he did say that I don't really feel is accurate is that it is difficult for a guy to get GHSV from someone during oral sex as it is. And if there is anything I've learned from searching, is that not only is that not true, it seems to be very common.