Confusion and questions

Hi all,

I’ve just joined this forum and I’m hoping to get answers to my questions.

I’ve always had cold sores since I was a baby, classic symptoms and stress is my main trigger, they always clear up after a week.

I’ve been in a trusting and faithful relationship for the past three and half years and a couple of days ago I felt a bit sore. Had to go to the doctors for my smear test and asked about it, Dr sent me to the sexual health clinic where the nurse took some swabs and said she could see a sore and thought it was very likely to be herpes.

I’ve looked and I can’t really see anything obviously out of the ordinary just slightly more pink and very sore. She told me that you can have mouth herpes and that they can appear on your genitalia for no reason just that you have the virus in your body.

I’m really surprised and shocked and still coming to terms with it. My test results haven’t come back yet so I don’t think I quite believe it yet. I guess my question is has this happened to anyone else? Cold sores just appearing on the genitalia out of nowhere?

My partner has never showed signs of being infected but he does have an incredible immune system so could it be that he too is infected and has given me genital herpes without having any symptoms himself.

It’s all so confusing. I just feel so lost about it all!

There are many possible scenarios...I'm no expert but 1.) you could have unknowingly passed hsv1 to him orally (or he could've already had as 2/3 of people do) and he could've transmitted it to you during oral sex. 2.) he could have hsv2 without knowing it and passed it to you, I think 80% of people with hsv2 don't know it Bc they're either asymptomatic or their symptoms are really mild.