oral sex and herpes

[anyinfoplease]

I am a female with genital hsv-1.  If a guy without herpes gives me oral sex what is the likeliness that he will contract oral hsv-1.  I know that genital to genital hsv-1 transmission is very low right. But what about genital to oral?

[gracefromHHP]

Hsv1 genitally only sheds about 3% of days on average. You aren't any likelier to transmit it to someone's oral area just because that's the prefered area of infection than you are to the genital area.


Keep in mind that at least 25% of folks who have hsv1 genitally also have it orally whether they ever get an obvious cold sore or not ( so far the only studies done on it only looked for the presence of obvious cold sores as an indicator of oral infection simulataneously ).  You and your partner might also want to talk about barrier protection when you perform oral sex on them if your partner is hsv1 negative. It's still a low risk but just something to be aware of.

grace

[jda123]

I'm guessing that genital-to-oral hsv1 transmission is equally low, since I think the reason for the low transmission is that genital hsv1 doesn't shed as often as hsv2.  I'm not sure about that, but that's what I think.

However, most people already have HSV1 orally anyway, so you could easily have a partner get a Herpeselect test to check for HSV1 and 2 IGG antibodies.  (FYI, IGM tests are worthless. Ignore them if administered...or opt out of it if possible.)  If he tests positive for HSV1 then he can't get it again orally OR genitally.  I got the following quote from this thread:

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/STD/messages/1551.html

"With few if any exceptions, everybody with HSV-1 is immune from catching it again; and certainly nobody can be reinfected with the same HSV-1 strain they already are carrying."