Oral herpes concern

So when you say you were diagnosed with oral, do you mean type 1? And did they do a blood test or a swab to test you for it? Also, do you or have you ever gotten cold sores?

We are in the same situation. I have HSV1 (oral) on my genitals.  Caught it the same way, with oral. Good news is the type1 virus doesn't really like that area so breakouts are less frequent (from 5-6 a year with hsv 2 to about 1 for hsv 1). Bad news is if you got it down there, you'll most likely always have it down there. I asked the doc if I would get it at the mouth too and she said that once you have it, your body starts developping antibodies (antiviral? sorry, my english sucks) so transmission to different parts of the body is pretty rare. BUT you can give it to someone else via genital contact. If you don't have it at the mouth, you won't give it with oral or kissing. It's the downstairs area that is infected, so you can still be contagious for them if they give you oral or when you have sex. And then, they can either get it at the mouth or on their genitals. See how bitchy that thing is?

If you mean you have HSV1 genitally, then you have genital herpes caused by HSV1. It is incorrect to say you have oral herpes. If you only have genital HSV1, then kissing is not an issue, as your mouth is not infected. Genital contact could transmit the virus, but luckily genital HSV1 does not typically recur very often and is not very infectious (having it orally or having HSV2 genitally is more infectious).

Can you clarify, did your Dr tell you how likely it is that type 1 can be transmitted from the genitals? I not sure I agree it is unlikely or not very likely. It is less infectious coming from the genitals than type 2, but that is just a relativity statement and does not mean it is UNlikely. This is an important issue and I interested in physicians' opinion about it.