[Question #6909] HSV-2

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62 months ago
Both my partner and I have genital herpes. If we do oral, will we transfer it to our faces?
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Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner
62 months ago
No, that would be exceedingly uncommon.  Once you have a herpes infection in one location on your body, it would very largely protect you against getting it in a new location.  I have only seen this happen once, and it was with HSV 1, in 35 years of practice.  Also, HSV 2 has a very strong preference for living in the genital area and dislikes living in the oral area.  When people do become infected orally (by giving oral sex to someone who has HSV 2), the infection rarely recurs and is rarely shed.  If I was in your situation, I wouldn't give it a moment's hesitation before proceeding with oral sex.

Terri
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