The ethics of HSV-1 disclosure?? How important is the location?

If you have GHSV-1, how unethical would it be to tell someone you're dating, prior to any intimate contact of course, that you simply simply carry the HSV-1 virus...and not inform them of the specific location where it manifests (or has manifested in the past)? It seems to me that it doesn't even matter where it manifests, since if you are physically intimate with someone (including oral and penetrative sex) and they catch it due to asymptomatic shedding, it would be impossible to definitively tell how the virus was transmitted. Why even bother differentiating the location to potential partners?

I have GHSV-1 and have disclosed only once and informed the person of the location, but since then I've been wondering if that disclosure (the location - not the existence of the virus) is even necessary. If up to 90% of people have OHSV-1 and the vast majority do not disclose before oral sex AND they are more contagious than people with GHSV-1, it seems irrational and unfair that the GHSV-1 people get all the stigma and rejection.

If it were me, I would disclose location if there's a chance of passing it along. Can you pass GHSV-1 to someone that already has OHSV-1? I haven't looked into that specifically but I think I saw that you can't.

And if/when you do disclose, make sure you've got statistics about the rate of viral shedding and likelihood of passing F to M. If you have antivirals, I'd also be sure to be taking them when things get intimate, just to be safe.

Thanks for the response, @SPATX919. It's a tough call (at least for me, at the moment) because everyone I've heard of who has GHSV-1 has gotten it from oral sex with someone who either didn't know they had it or didn't feel like disclosing. There are very few documented cases of genital to genital transmission with GHSV-1, but many oral-to-genital (and presumably at least a few genital-to-oral, though I'm having trouble finding stats on this). I also can't find exact F to M/M to F stats.

https://www.herpes-coldsores.com/viral_shedding.htm

According to the above site, it seems GHSV-1 sheds 3-5% days per year when no symptoms are present, whereas OHSV-1 sheds 18% when no symptoms are present. But people tend not to really register the statistics...I feel like their gut reaction is "you have filthy genitals and there is a chance - even a relatively small chance - that I could catch that from you" and that is that. The knee-jerk revulsion takes over, and it dooms people who have GHSV-1 in ways that it does not doom the more contagious OHSV-1 people. I'm not even sure I blame them...it's not a nice thing to think about having permanently.

When was the last time anyone ever asked someone they were going to kiss, if they were tested for herpes?

HSV is NOT a big deal. Fear and misinformation have made it into something it's not. The funny thing is that around 1 in 5 people have it and of those up to 90% of them don't know they have it. So for the majority it really is a non issue.