Lowdown on oral sex

A little background. I have been Hvs2+ for 38 years and was married for 28 years to my partner who was also HSV2+. I am currently single again and am dating someone who is HSV1+. We have put off being intimate until we feel that we have a committed relationship, but we do have sexual contact. My question and I know this has been talked about many times is how safe is it for her to perform oral sex on me? I have researched this on different sites and am getting conflicting opinons.

Riggs

Unfortunately, there are no studies establishing exact risk stats for HSV2 transmitted from genitals to mouth via oral sex. However, herpes experts seem to believe that it is a lower risk activity than intercourse, so that's encouraging.

The risk of someone contracting HSV2 through giving a positive partner oral sex is not zero. However, here are a couple things to consider...

- By mid-40's, more than half of single/divorced/widowed women and more than a quarter of single/divorced/widowed men are infected with HSV2, yet rates of oral HSV2 remain very low. If it was highly contagious through oral sex, you would see a huge increase in oral HSV2 cases with increased age, given how many people are infected genitally. This is not the case.

- If your gf contracts HSV2 orally, she may not have a noticeable primary outbreak. If she does, it would be just like a primary outbreak of HSV1 but would most likely never recur and would shed very rarely (1% of days per year) compared to oral HSV1 (6-33% of days per year). Additionally, after a period of a few months, she would be largely protected from ever contracting it genitally.