Question:
Hello all,
Well I told a little about myself in my autbio recently...I also just read the link to an article (Good Herpes/ Bad Herpes) by the American health association (provided in the transmission section)...this article was incredidbly astute and informative...it really puts into perspective the realities of living with herpes from both a practical medical and social stigma standpoint. I have a question though that I'm sure has been answered but for some reason hasn't clicked in my head. Just for a background refresher I have Genital HSV1...I dont dont recall ever having cold sores throught my entire 45 years, so Im not sure if I ever had HSV1 in my system...seems unlikely since I aquired HSV1 outside of its "area of preferance". My first OB was 12 years ago, and didnt have another for almost 5 years...my third came three years after that. These days the only time I get an OB if I let stress get the better of me and I'm burning the candle at both ends...usually for me its once a year and the OB lasts maybe a week but sometimes only a few days. Anyway the question I have that I'm not getting is: In my case my first outbreak was 12 years ago...what i understand about first outbreaks is that, if you are going to show physical symptoms then it usually shows from 2-14 days (for example)...is it possible that I could have had Genital HSV1 for years or months prior to my first outbreak...if it stands true that the first outbreak is after 2-14 days then I know exactly where i contracted it...but if it can lie dormant with no symptoms for months or years then I guess I have no way of knowing...just curious.

Answer:
From my knowledge (not that I know a lot about this...), but I read something about it recently and I got the impression that yes HSV-1 can lie dormant for years and years hence why so many people have it and dont know. But I think, if you are going to visually show symptoms then it will happen around 20 days after your exposure to the virus. People who have an outbreak are then 80% likely to have recurring outbreaks. But people who dont show symptoms after being exposed to the virus, it will then lie dormant. So I think from this information it should make it easier to track it.

Make sense? Dont quote me tho!