Herpes-only answers from people who actually know what there talking about?!
Question:
Herpes-only answers from people who actually know what there talking about?
When are you more contagious- before your first outbreak when you have a pimple like bump symptom, or after you already have it, and have sex, and 2 days later you get a very mild outbreak with no real blisters that only lasts about 1 1/2 days.
Answers:
You can transmit HSV-2 (traditionally causes genital herpes) at any point once infected as you shed the virus even when you don't have symptoms (asymptomatic shedding). So therefore it is important to wear a condom all of the time, and I reccomend that you take suppresive anti-viral therapy--it reduces recurrent lesions, asymptomatic viral shedding AND transmission. You should avoid sexual activity from the onset of the "warning" symptoms (ie. focal burning, itching (most common), tingling, or vague discomfort until the skin has healed over completely after the outbreak. Sex, and a few other "trigger" factors like surgery, illness (esp. fever), exposure to sun, emotional stress, or menstrual cycle in women, can trigger recurrences. Reccurence rates generally decrease every year although studies show that individual host differences result in some people getting more outbreaks in later years.
To clarify/correct a few of the answers given:
= as far as transmission goes, women are at higher risk of acquiring genital herpes from a male partner than vice versa. Studies have found that among heterosexual HSV-2 magnetic couples (+/-) with a source partner who had symptomatic recurrent genital HSV-2 infection, annual transmission rates were 11-17% in couples with male source and 3-4% in couples with female source. So that is one factor to consider in magnetic couple situations. And remember the above percentages are ANNUAL transmission rates
=In some studies pre-existing HSV-1 infections reduced the likelihood of acquiring HSV-2 genitally (in women) by 55-74% (two studies I can recall) ALTHOUGH, others have not observed such a protective effect (I think two studies here as well)