Would you be shocked to discover that you are much less likely to contract genital herpes from unprotected intercourse with someone who has herpes type 1 genitally than from receiving oral sex from someone that gets coldsores, even when they do not have a coldsore?
I have hsv1 genitally, I got it from my boyfriend who gave me oral sex, he got coldsores but didn’t have one at the time.
HSV1 more commonly causes oral herpes, when it is genital is it less infectious because it is outside of it’s site of preference on the body. I am only about 1/4 to 1/5 as infectious as someone with oral hsv1 (coldsores)
And yet I find that there is a strong stigma against having it genitally, although physically it is milder than the oral version.
Knowing this, would you be more likely to have intercourse with someone who has genital herpes hsv1 or receive oral from one of the 8/10 people that get coldsores? Bear in mind if you get coldsores you are extremely unlikely to catch it genitally.
