last week i went to the doctor and he told me he is pretty sure i have HSV2, from what i understand it takes 2-20 days after being infected to show symptoms, so does that mean i can know who gave it to me because i havent been with anyone else in the last 2 months?? even though he said he has never had any HSV2 type symptoms is it possible he got it one day but has never had an OB??? he does have HSV1 but only gets cold sores in his nose no where else, so can i get HSV2 from that??

I am going through the same thing.. it's all so confusing. Good luck, hopefully someone can help us understand more

Yes, you can get genital herpes from HSV-1. If someone who gets cold sores performs oral sex on you, it can be transmitted that way. That is how I got it. If your partner performed oral sex while he had cold sores, or if his HSV-1 was active but not showing symptoms, he could have transmitted it to you that way. Hope this helps...

so wait... can you get HSV-2 from HSV-1 ?

Genital herpes can be either HSV-1 or 2. HSV-1 "tends" to be above the waist and HSV-2 "tends" to be below the waist, but it is possible to get either type in either region. I have genital HSV-1.

thanks for replying,
i just got my results back and i do have only HSV1 so does that mean i will keep getting them below the waist? or will the rest of my outbreaks be oral ones from now on??

If youve never gotten a cold sore, youll probably only get genital outbreaks. Unfortunately, I am now getting both.

The virus can lay dormat in you or your partners body for many, many, years so you don't know how you get it unless your obviously with someone with symptoms. My husband and I were married for 14 years before I showed symptoms and my doc says I or my husband could have been a carrier from 20 years before. She told me she recently had a 70 year old woman who was widowed 20 years recently show symptoms!! Can you beat that!!

from what I recall you can only get type one from type one and type two from type two....i may be wrong but that is what i was told.

as someone previously stated it CAN lay dormant for years on end...My now husband and I were dating for over a year when I had my first outbreak and we have no idea who it came from. He has never shown a symptom whereas I have only had 1 outbreak and that was my primary....