Question:
So a week and a half ago, I slept with a friend of mine who I had slept with several times before (I'll call her girl1). I was really drunk and I let her go down on me before sex, even though I knew she had had a cold sore a few weeks earlier. A couple days later, I slept with my ex-gf/best friend (girl2). On Wednesday the 26th, which happened to be my birthday, I noticed three tiny red dots on my shaft which looked like cuts from when I shave the area. However, I was concerned because 1 of the tiny dots was higher up on the shaft than I ever shave, so I went to the University health center to get it looked at.

The nurse swabbed the sores, but said she was pretty sure it wasn't herpes and they were just normal cuts, so I didn't think anything of it, although I did tell girl2 about it. The next day she ended up sleeping with another 'friend' of hers (guy1). That Friday, unfortunately, I hadn't gotten the results back yet, and was out with some friends celebrating for my birthday. That night, my friend who is going through a divorce (guy2) ended up sleeping with my other friend (girl2), which in my drunken state I was encouraging because my friend needed to get over his (soon-to-be-ex)-wife.

Of course, on Sunday, girl2 (who I talk to pretty much every day) breaks out in ugly sores. As I was expecting by that point, my results came in the next day and I was positive for HSV1. I talked to my friend Girl1 about it and she said that she was experiencing an outbreak too, but hadn't said anything to me about it yet because she was still awaiting her results. In addition, I found out from talking to her that she had also slept with, and given oral to, Guy2, just a few days before she slept with me most recently.

So, now it looks like due to my own irresponsibility, myself and 4 other people have genital HSV1. What I don't understand is how it could have spread so easily to so many people from just one instance of sex in each transmission, when I thought HSV1 is supposed to be hard to spread to the genital area. Personally, I know I've received oral from girls who carried the HSV1 virus before and it never spread to my genital area before.

To complicate the situation, I have been dating another girl for the last 2 1/2 weeks who I haven't slept with yet, because she's a good girl from a traditional Indian background. She has been hinting that she wants to sleep with me this weekend, and of course I can't now, because I know she's not going to want to once I tell her (if I tell her) about the whole situation.

I've read that genital HSV1 is supposed to be much milder, with less recurrences and less shedding than genital HSV2. Does this also mean that it sheds less than oral HSV1? How have I avoided receiving or giving someone genital HSV1 with all the oral I've engaged in, since nearly everyone has OHSV1, and supposedly it sheds there too? Wouldn't it more likely to spread HSV1 to the genital region from oral sex, than to spread it during regular intercourse, if in both cases no symptoms of OB are being exhibited?

Also, since it's the same virus as the cold sore virus, would it be dishonest to let women perform oral on me without letting them know that I have it? I've never told anyone before kissing them that I was a carrier of oral HSV1 and therefore they were risking contracting it by kissing me, but I suspect women would feel more deceived if I let them go down on me, than afterwards, but before having sex, told them I had genital HSV1. Wouldn't the risk of them orally contracting HSV1 from going down on me be lower than from kissing me anyway, since HSV1 prefers the face?

Answer:
I just don't understand how this spread so quickly to so many people, in each case from one act of sex, when HSV1 is supposed to have a hard time setting up base in the genital region!:confused:

Answer:
The virus is an opportunist it does not pick and choose between people or places. Its entire life cycle is dependent upon replication and infecting hosts. If it is active and it comes into contact with a location it can live and thrive it will do so.

The reason it spread so quickly is because it has a very short incubation period and the parties involved were in contact with each other during that time period.

Just because you never exhibit symptoms of an oral or genital infection of hsv does not mean that you do not have it. To not inform potential partners is an act of deception. There is no guarantee that their infection will be mild.

Answer:
I just found out that guy1 got tested, and his results came back negative. Guy2 doesn't necessarily have it either. So maybe I only infected 2 people. :-?