Genital HSV1 Herpes Transmission Rates genital to genital?

[reanthony1]

Hi! Was was recently diagnosed with genital hsv1. I have heard conflicting information about genital to genital transmission regarding hsv1. I’ve geard people say that there are no documented cases, but I’ve also seen a few forums with people who claim to have received it via genital to genital sex. I assume this is most likely true, but maybe they received oral sex earlier and only experienced symptoms later? I’m not really sure..

 

I also had what a assumed was a cold sore on my chin...none on my lips. Are my lips stil contagious? Or is it just the spot of infection?

[optimist]

There is very, very little document research on this. I've only seen one very small study that looked at people with brand new GHSV1 infections and then assessed where their source partners were shedding from and it revealed that some of the new cases were a result of genital-genital contact. However, this was a very small study, like maybe fewer than 50 people, IIRC. If you're interested, I'll find it for you.

 

I do recall Terri Warren (well regarded clinician with HSV expertise) mentioned a while back that GHSV1 transmission research is underway and that in the absence of data, she would point to shedding rates as possibly giving insight. Oral HSV1 sheds an average of 25% of the time. Genital HSV1 sheds an average of 5% of the time. Genital HSV2 sheds an average of 14% of this time. An educated guess might be to divide documented average transmission rates for GHSV2 by 1/3 since GHSV2 sheds about 1/3 as often as GHSV1. And also may be helpful to bear in mind that genital HSV1 sheds on average 5x less often than genital HSV1.

 

As for the lesion on your chin, you'd need it swabbed to know if it's HSV related, I think.