Genital HSV 1 Transmission Question

[becka1600]

I have genital HSV 1 and to my knowledge not oral HSV 1 and to date have only had one genital initial outbreak about 6 months ago.  I take valtrex daily 500 mg.  I am in a new relationship and we are participating in mutual oral sex but not genital sex.  I did inform him that I have HSV 1.  My question is, is there a risk of passing on genital HSV 1 via oral sex??  Can he get my genital infection by performing oral sex on me and then can I in turn give it to him??  I can't seem to find any information on this.  Of course when we start having genital sex, we will use protection.
Thanks!

[gracefromHHP]

My first question is - has he been tested for both hsv1 and hsv2 yet?  If not that's your next step. If he has hsv1 already then you have little to worry about. If he has hsv2 - you'll need to be taking precautions to protect yourself since you can still contract hsv2.

Unless you get an obvious cold sore to let you know that you have hsv1 orally - there's no easy way to tell if you also have it orally or not. Unfortunately there haven't been good studies on this yet but one study showed that 1/4 of folks who contracted hsv1 genitally also had it orally while another showed much higher results.  Both studies only looked at the appearance of obvious cold sores though - neither did any oral swabbing for several months to detect shedding of hsv1. The vast majority of folks who contract hsv1 orally - don't get obvious cold sores to know it.  I"m not saying this as a gloom and doom scare technique - just saying it's something to talk about with your partner when you are deciding what precautions you want to take for all forms of sexual contact.  

grace