Hello ASHA network.  Thanks for providing this very valuable service for this extremely vexing problem of living with Herpes!!  Here are the facts and my questions.

Facts:

I am a 66-year-old male who is positive of HSV-2 by NOT HSV-1.  I believe that I contracted HSV-2 about 30 years ago and use to get an outbreak about 2 or 3 times per year and then about 10 years ago it went to once a year and now that I am retired, I have not had an outbreak for over 14 months.  When I get an outbreak, I get prodrome symptoms in my upper leg, so I then take the proper dose of anti-viral for 3-5 days and often I don’t even get an ulcer and the outbreak stops.  When I do get an ulcer (only on my penis shaft) it then usually goes away within a week.

I am now dating a wonderful 58-year-old woman (a nurse) who is positive for HSV-1 but NOT HSV-2.  She does not ever remember having any visible cold sores in her life.  For the past 3 months I have been taking 500mg of antiviral every day to reduce the chances of spreading HSV-2 to my new lady friend.  To date we have only had minor sexual contact (deep kissing and then me petting her breasts and then me masturbating).

I really care about this woman and sincerely respect that she is willing to date me, so I want to be very careful as we proceed.

Here are my questions (assuming that I remain on daily anti-viral):

1-      What are the chances of her getting HSV-2 from protected intercourse (with no signs of me having an outbreak)?  Please give a percentage based on the data.

2-      What are the chances of her getting HSV-2 from unprotected intercourse (with no signs of me having an outbreak)?

3-      What are our options for having SAFE sex, and please list the specific acts that we can share with one another?

4-      What are the chances that if she unfortunately gets HSV-2 from me that she will have a severe case?

THTHANK YOU

2-      What are the chances of her getting HSV-2 from unprotected intercourse (with no signs of me having an outbreak)?

With couples that have been together for a while (and that is the data we have), having sex about twice a week, taking antiviral medication daily, there is about a 5% transmission risk per year.

W

3-      What are our options for having SAFE sex, and please list the specific acts that we can share with one another?

Mutual masturbation, you giving her oral sex if you have no oral HSV 1 infection.  Low risk are her giving you oral sex, sex with a condom.

4-      What are the chances that if she unfortunately gets HSV-2 from me that she will have a severe case?

There is no way to know for sure, but if she already has HSV 1, a new infection could be very mild or missed completely.  The antibody to type 1 keeps things a bit under control in terms of symptoms. 

Terri