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I Went Out With A Girl Last Thursday Evening And
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My question is, if I did have asymptomatic HSV1, could she have gotten a cold sore so quickly? And do cold sores ever last less than 4 days? She says it is gone now. I have an appointment to be tested but I am kind of freaking out.
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Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome,
Cold sores are patches of tiny blisters so they are not hard to diagnose visually. Most are caused by HSV1 (80% of oral herpes), but a smaller number of oral herpes are caused by HSV 2 (20%). Now here is the part that many people aren't aware of: because the virus is so contagious, most of us have been infected by at least one subtype by the time we reach adulthood. Usually as little kids. But not all of us manifest symptoms (only about half do). Being female puts a person at higher risk for having cold sores from it.
The incubation period for it (from exposure to symptoms) is about 3-6 days. So the Thursday-Sunday time period is possible. As to whether you could have spread it without having any cold sores yourself: most are spread while a person has blisters, until they completely heal over, but around 30-50% of people (estimated) can occasionally shed herpes virus while having few or no associated symptoms.
So - if you test positive, it might still be that she already had HSV1 (which would be the most likely scenario as 80-90% of adults have the virus) and you didn't "give" it to her. So it may not provide much useful information. However, if you are negative, then you know it wasn't from you.
I hope this information helps.
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everything I have read says that typically cold sores last 7-14 days. are they ever as short-lived as 3-4 days?
I agree that is a short duration.
Detailed Answer:
I agree that 3-4 days would be a short duration for HSV 1. Usually it is around a week, and comes in stages - first some redness and tingling, then blisters, then healing of blisters. If she didn't see blisters, it likely wasn't a herpes outbreak.
But keep in mind - she may have already had the virus, even from childhood, and it came out now as a cold sore. Most of us have the virus.
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