General Questions

[nate248]

Hello everyone - my girlfriend has herpes around the mouth (so I guess simplex one) and I had some questions about the transmission of it and the possibility that it would transmit to me, knowing that she will not have any symptoms at the time and will not have recently had any, during the following sexual-ish relations:

- Kissing on the lips (both French and not)..(I know there are some chances but I guess I wanted to know if I can get away with it/how high the risk is)
- Her kissing my nipple (I read that a baby with herpes could give it to a mother on the nipple while breastfeeding so I wasn't sure)
- My giving her oral sex

Thanks in advance, I appreciate the help. And, because I have gotten this response before...yes I'm sure I don't have it already.

[slacker101]

Valtrex is primarily for HSV2. How well it performs with HSV1 hasn't really been studied to any great degree.

[nate248]

Thanks for your help. I'm assuming that at the times that I'd be doing this stuff with her she wouldn't have had any symptoms for a while. Would Valtrex or any other medication help make the chances of transmission during french kissing smaller?

[slacker101]

If she has an overt lesions or prodromes, stay away till it subsides. Asymptomatical shedding of HSV1 isn't as high as 2 so there is minimal risk there but it's not zero. Babies have weaker immune systems than adults so of course they are more suseptible but again, make sure she has not sores if she is going to do that to you. If she has herpes of the mouth, you are safe giving her oral. Herpes usually gets into a nerve ganglion and doesn't travel to other ones so the mouth isn't related to her vagina so have a blast down there :)P