Risk of Contracting Herpes

I have been seeing a wonderful woman. She tells me that she contracted genital herpes many years ago, that she hasn't had an outbreak in years and that she takes daily antiviral medicine. There is a good chance that we may become sexually intimate soon and I am wondering what my risk is for contracting the virus. Of course, we would avoid sex during an outbreak (although there haven't been any for a long time) and we would practice safer sex--dental dams or plastic wrap for oral sex (me on her) and condoms from start to finish for intercourse and oral sex (her on me). I have read that condoms only offer limited protection since they do not cover every place where there may be contact. Realistically, what are the odds of me contracting the herpes virus? I understand that the odds would increase the more we have sex, but what are we talking about? Is there a 40 percent chance I will contract the virus, a 4 percent chance, or something in between? Thanks for your help with this. GP

[notalone13]

this is a choice you have to make for your self. I have herpes and I can tell you it takes a lot for a someone to tell you and break everything down of why they don't want to jump in to bed with you. my best advise it you care for this lady or you would not have done the research and be wondering... go for it! just be smart about it! and if this is long term you need to get check every year to be sure you have not contracted Herpes.

Or

you could not do it and move onto someone else who may lie to you and you contact something anyways....

hope this helped....

[gracefromHHP]

No idea where you got the 40% from. I'm glad you found us to get more accurate info on this topic!!!

First off - does your gf have hsv1 or hsv2 genitally?

Have you been tested to know your own status?

I'm going to assume your gf has hsv2 genitally but if it's hsv1, this info doesn't apply.  If you two did absolutely nothing but avoid sex whenever she had obvious genital lesions, your yearly risk of contracting hsv2 would be about 4%.  Her being on daily suppressive therapy cuts it in half. Throw in condom use with everything else - it's about a 1% risk/year on average of contracting hsv2 from her. Very reasonable odds without a heck of a lot of work.  

Feel free to ask any other questions you have.

grace