I am a 25 year old female and have recently had a herpes 2 diagnosis via blood test after some blisters came up on my knee and foot. Never had any outbreak on my genitals or anus. Dermatologist also saw the blisters and confirmed this based of symptoms. 

This being said, I'm in a serious relationahip and my partner knows. However we both have questions about what sex life would look like with this diagnosis if this relationship makes it to would marriage.  We believe in abstinence until marriage.  

That being said, if we do get married obviously we plan on having sex. How can we protect him from getting it?  I was told by my doctor no matter what he would get it. This broke my heart.  Even if this WERE the case does this mean we would BOTH end up having HSV 2 orally as well if we performed oral sex on each other? Does where I get the outbreaks change the odds at all?

We believe in abstinence now, but neither of us are virgins,  and we know what we like so this would just be horrible if this happened. To not perform oral, I mean.

Does me having HSV2 on my legs prevent me from getting it orally? And then would we have to wait for him to get it so he could perform orally. Does this make sense? Like how will this work if we get to the stage of life we get married?

What would this mean if I wanted to become a mother?

To be perfectly frank , I'm terrified of what my life will look like because of this diagnosis. 

Your doctor is sadly mistaken.  I know many couples who have been together for 40 or more years who have NOT transmitted the virus between them. 

Was a culture done from a lesion on your leg?  What was the index value of your IgG blood antibody test, can you get that?  Was it IgG or IgM?  I want to be absolutely certain that this diagnosis is correct. 

IF this is herpes on your leg, it means you also have it genitally, almost certainly.  And you would not subsequently get it orally, with a very high degree of certainty.

Has your partner had an IgG test yet?  If not, he should.  He maybe infected and not know it.  If you are both infected, this is not an issue.

If only you are infected, you could take daily antiviral therapy and reduce the risk of transmission by half. If he uses condoms in addition, that takes the risk down to about a 1% transmission rate per year.

You can certainly have babies!  About one in five women have HSV 2 in the US and many are having happy healthy children. 

Do not be afraid.  Let's confirm the diagnosis first, then we can talk more about what to do next.  This is a VERY manageable condition

Terri