herpes, cold sores, ingrown hair

[Inquisitive30]

I have had cold sores all my life.  Does that mean I could spread herpes.  What if I get some after sexual contact, does that mean I might have caught herpes?  Does cold sores and genital herpes occur at the same time?

[petal130]

Assuming your cold sores are oral herpes, yes you can transmit the virus through kissing (passionate) or if you perform oral sex on another person. You are not contagious all the time, only when you have an outbreak, and during viral "shedding", when the virus is active but you have no symptoms.

There are two herpes virus, HSV1 and HSV2. You most likely have HSV1, which most oral herpes cases are attributed to.

You can't get herpes "again" per se. However, you could get HSV2 genitally if you had sex with someone who has it. As to genital HSV1, you have significant protection against getting it genitally as you most likely have it orally.

Some people do get both oral and genital at the same time, based on the primary infection. If you have sex with someone who transmits it to you, and it includes both genital and oral contact, then that is possible.

Most likely if you've had cold sores all your life, you got it before you were having sex, so you would not have got it at that time genitally.

Become educated even further by reading the Herpes Handbook, link in my signature.
http://www.westoverheights.com/genital_herpes/handbook/view_the_chapters.html