#1 Since studies say that condom use reduces transmission by 96% for male to females, and Valtrex suppressive therapy will reduce it by 50% (study done without condom use), will you say that if my partner takes Valtrex every day and we use condoms that transmission would be extremely unlikely?
Yes
#2. Oral HSV-2 outbreaks and oral shedding are a lot more infrequent then HSV-1. I am thinking about purposely trying to get infected with HSV-2 orally so that I will be forever protected against having HSV-2 genitally. What are your thoughts on this?
You could do that I suppose – people have certainly done that. But would you then worry about infecting someone with HSV 2 by giving oral sex?
#3 My partner had tested negative for for HSV-2 and HSV-1 IGG in 2019 and swears he has not been unfaithful. His other partner has always been negative as well, and she got her first primary outbreak after he had his (So he basically gave it to her and that’s how both people ended up with primary outbreak from my first original posted question). He had his first primary outbreak in December, about 1 week after getting a massage. I’m sorry to be graphic, but I need to ask you because I want to know if I can trust what he is telling me. He says there was no intercourse involved. The massage girl had her fingers in her genital area and then proceeded to try to arouse him immediately after taking her fingers away from her genital area. When he realized what she was doing, he said no he wasn’t interested in that kind of massage. But he allowed her to continue to massage the area near his penis (inner thighs), but not the penis itself. She also straddled him and was grinding on his crotch area with a bikini on during the massage. Is this story believable? I want to believe him, and am wondering if it’s just dumb luck that he got infected this way, or if he is lying to me and probably had intercourse with someone infected.
I think it is very difficult to answer this because what he did with the massage person and there might have been genital to genital contact that he’s not describing. If all of this is correct, then this is not a method of transmission but underwear slips and he may not have noticed.
Also, you can’t really know for sure about the other partner and her experiences, regardless of what she says.
This is too complicated with too many moving parts for you to ever know how this happened, for sure.
Terri