hsv1 genital to oral infection risk

Hi, I'm male and have genital hsv1. I was wondering what the risk of my girlfriend getting oral herpes from giving me oral sex. I've had it for about 7 years and rarely get outbreaks. After the first outbreak, I had one a month or two later, then none until about two years ago and none since. I was under the impression that if I was not having an outbreak that I was not contagious. Now I have been reading that that is not the case.





This discussion is related to HSV1 Genital Exposure.

[gracefromHHP]

Has your partner had a herpes blood test to know her own status? If not that's your next step.

yes indeed the virus is active periodically in between obvious genital lesions.  For hsv1 genitally it's about 3% of days which is pretty low.  You can potentially pass it onto a partner but usually just avoiding sex during obvious genital symptoms is all it takes. Knowing her herpes status though is also important so that the two of you can better assess her risk and make decisions as to what precautions to take.

grace