herpes

Hi,
Recently my friend found out that her boyfriend has herpes but did not tell her. They have unprotected sex b/c she is on bc. I keep telling her that just because he is not having an outbreak does not mean she can't get it. what are the odds of her getting it if he is not having an outbreak and hasn't for a while? (or so he claims). Also, ever since she has been with him she constantly keeps getting cold sores on her mouth. Is it possible if they are HSV 2 even though they are recurrent? I think they are not suppose to be recurrent if they are not in the genital area. If she does a blood test will it show that she has HSV 2 even if she just has it on her lip? She doesn't have any symptoms in the genital area, I don't think. But they have been together for 2 years, aren't the chances of infection very high if having unprotected sex for so long?
Thanks!

[dial713]

i was recently diagnosed with herpes. I dont know if she could get herpes lesions on the stomach but she would have to go to the doctor to get that check out or it could be something else. but if her boyfriend has herpes and they havent been using a condom she could probably have it. Just because he is not showing symptons or signs of herpes does not mean that it cant be transmitted to his sex partner. I would suggest that she get tested to see if she has herpes. I hope that helps.

[gracefromHHP]

For a female having sex with a hsv2+ male, the risk of contracting hsv2  the course of a year if all they do is avoid sex whenever he has genital symptoms is about 8-10%  each year. Since he didn' t disclose to her that he had herpes, chances are good though that he's had sex when he shouldn't have out of fear of having to tell her about it :(  She certainly needs to get herself a type specific herpes igg blood test to see what her status is. Also pass on the link to the herpes handbook at www.westoverheights.com for more reading for her on how to reduce her odds of contracting it from him from this point forward if she is hsv2 negative at this point.  

grace