How To Avoid Transmission Of Herpes?

Posted on Tue, 30 Dec 2014

Question: Hello,

I am a sexually active 48 year old married male. I am sexually active outside of the marriage and am concerned about bringing something home. I use condoms but am concerned about the potential risk of contracting herpes or hpv from contact with exposed skin.

To alleviate this concern in addition to condoms I use a type of barrier protection that is best described as latex underwear. It has more recently been marketed as Scroguard. https://scroguard.com/.

My partner (female) does not like when I wear this and we have discussed the idea of getting tested so that we can eliminate this additional garment from our activities.

I have a few questions:

1. Is the risk of herpes and/or hsv sufficient to justify this additional level of barrier protection ?

2. What specific tests would it be appropriate for us to get ?

3. I received a series of Gardasil injections several years ago. Is this likely to have conferred a meaningful level of immunity ?

Thank you very much,
XXXXXXX

Answered by Dr. Dr. Kakkar (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
STI testing is advisable

Detailed Answer:
Hello. Thanks for writing to us at healthcaremagic

I have gone through your query and I have also gone through the link

Certainly this type of barrier protection is an additional level of protection against herpes and hpv.
Herpes and hpv are not totally preventable with just a condom because a condom covers only shaft of the penis and therefore may leave the other infected genital area exposed.
A condom none the less reduces the risk of herpes by 50 % as compared to unprotected sex.
This additional level of protection would certainly reduce the risk further because it covers almost all of the possibly infected area.

Since you have been engaged in sexual activity outside your relationship therefore I would suggest you to get tested for all the possible STD's like Syphilis (VDRL/RPR), HSV ELISA, HIV, Swab test for Gonorrhea and Chlamydia, Hepatitis B virus.

Yes, Gardsil is a quadrivalent vaccine that does protect against cancerous HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar