Girlfriend has Type 1 Genital herpes, what can/can't we do?

Just got diagnosed with Type 1 genital herpes. My partner gave it to me, though he has had no symptoms. (I'm not sure whether he gave it to me through oral or genital sex) I'm currently going through my primary outbreak and am trying to plan for how to manage this in the future.

My concern is spreading this to other parts of my body and his. Will it be possible for me to contract this orally? WIll it be possible for me to reinfect him? I'm not sure how this works.

Hi Concerned Male,

Valtrex is an antiviral medication that helps decrease the incidence and severity of outbreaks in people who have herpes. It would not decrease the likelihood of spreading the disease through sexual contact. If she has herpes type 1 in her vaginal area then any body part of yours that contacts her vaginal region would be susceptible to contracting the virus. So yes, if you gave her oral sex, you would risk getting the virus on your mouth. If she doesn't have the virus on her mouth and has NEVER had an outbreak there, she would not be passing the virus to you from her mouth, only her vaginal region.

Hope that helps and you get the information you are looking for.

Thanks for the help. I am unsure if she is taking any sort of medications but will ask about that. What would that change if she was on something like Valtrex because, if she's not maybe I can suggest that. She said shes never had a break out in the mouth but says that it was diagnosed as type 1 non the less, just in the vaginal region. Would that mean that it wouldn't spread from oral sex, let's say just one way, in a particular setting?