Can you give someone genital herpes if you have a cold sore?!


Question:

Can you give someone genital herpes if you have a cold sore?

If someone has a dried cold sore on their lip and it stopped draining can they give someone genital herpes via oral sex? And the oral didnt occur directly on the vagina, just around the area.


Answers:

Yes, definitely. You are infectious from the first tingle to a few days after the sore has healed, even if it is dry. You can also sometimes be infectious when you have no symptoms whatsoever - my boyfriend didn't even have a cold sore when he gave me oral, we wasn't getting one or recovering from one, and I still got genital herpes.

The thinner genital skin is the most vulnerable, but anywhere there might be thinner skin or a minute fissure the virus can enter.

Gina is wrong. There are two herpes simplex viruses, hsv1 and hsv2. Most oral herpes is caused by hsv1, and most genital herpes used to be caused by hsv2, as the viruses are better adapted to these locations. However, up to 40% of new genital herpes cases are now caused by hsv1, the oral herpes virus. When you get it on your genitals, it is genital herpes, though it causes less outbreaks than hsv2.

If your partner gets cold sores herself, it is unlikely she will have caught it as her oral infection gives her a high level of protection. If he doesn't get cold sores, genital symptoms would likely show within 2 weeks, they normally start in about 4-5 days. So if it's past this time, she should be ok.




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