For my own understanding,
When you talk about 10% transmission rate for unprotected intercourse (with no viral suppression meds)
does this mean the typical person is shedding 36 days a year and infection transmission is close to 100%?….
or are they shedding more frequently and the infection transmission rate is (50%, 25%, ??%)?
The way that I best understand this is that if there were 100 men with HSV 2 having sex twice per week with 100 uninfected female partners (just one on one sex), with no meds and no condoms, about 10 women would become infected. This is an AVERAGE. Transmission rates will be higher from someone newly infected and probably less likely from someone who has been infected for a long time. Transmission rates will be higher for people having sex more than twice per week. There are lots of variables. These numbers are averages and may not apply specifically to you.
Do you have any advice on how early in a relationship to bring this up?
– there is clearly no point in bringing it up if I meet someone once that
I am not interested in but it also doesn’t feel right to hide it too long
from someone if we are both pretty interested….and for me there is some
risk of rejection at that point
Have you read the Good News about the Bad News? There are two whole chapters devoted to this topic. In summary, I would disclose this after deciding that this is a person with whom you feel comfortable sharing very person information and before having sex.
Besides antivirals and condoms, are there other things either or both partners can do to reduce the
likelihood of transmission?… and no, abstinence is not really an option…LOL
in particular, I was wondering about things like
– supplements for immune system
– avoiding contact when either partner is feeling sick
– other???
No, none of those that we know for sure. However, developing symptom recognition skills is important
chance of transmission is somewhat higher (10% vs 2-4%?) in male to female than female
to male, correct?
Correct
I want to double check one of my earlier statements in a previous post…
I said – HSV-2 is almost always genital so kissing and manual stimulation and oral both directions are ok
Your response was – Correct again.
So the risk of me transmitting HSV-2 (genital) to a partner from receiving unprotected oral is almost zero?
The risk of you giving hSV 2 to a partner receiving oral sex from you? Yes, if you have genital HSV 2 you cannot transmit HSV 2 from your mouth, correct.
Terri