My Boyfriend has HSV-2, I don't - Intimacy Questions

Hi all,

So I've been dating this guy for a few weeks. He told me very quickly that he has genital herpes so that I could make an informed decision/consent to sex to knowing that there was some minor risk. Clearly, I've accepted that risk since we're still dating and really enjoying getting intimate with each other as often a possible. We do always use a condom and he is taking daily medication (I believe it's Valtrex).

But that's where my questions come from. Sex with condoms is fine (if you can find the right ones, I recommend HEX, they are amazing and DON'T BREAK!) but I haven't gotten to giving him oral sex yet, which I know both of us really want. And it's an entirely selfish reason: I HATE giving oral sex to a partner while they're wearing a condom. I'm having a very hard time finding actual statistics online as to how contagious HSV-2 is in the mouth. What are the real risks to giving my partner oral sex without a condom?

It's also very relevant information that I have HSV-1 and had cold sores every year since I was a child (which I informed him of as well). Does this play any role in making it more difficult to catch HSV-2?

Thank you for reading this, please share any information you have~

I might be wrong, but I'm pretty certain I read on the blog somewhere that someone had asked a doctor about that and was told that there is a very minimal chance of hsv2 genital transferring to oral. It is very rare and highly uncommon. But if course they're is always a chance.

My understanding is that it is very low risk but not impossible. In rare cases of transmission to the mouth, if a noticeable primary outbreak occurs, it would be visually indistinguishable from an outbreak of HSV1, but then it would be unlikely to recur and would shed virus significantly less often than oral HSV1. Additionally, after antibodies build, the oral infection would largely protect you from ever contracting it genitally. Terri Warren (a clinician who specializes in herpes) has described it as "akin to vaccination against genital HSV2."

The risk is very, very low. Go for it!!!