Hi Grace,
You are right I should tell. I am trying to find a right time and way to say it. Since I have only told about 3 people so far, i prefer that I know and trust the person before I tell them.
Or should I just bring up the subject way before and say btw, I have HSV1?
Depends on your age as to how many folks have hsv1. If you are in your 40's then 60% of folks have it. if you are in your 80's, it's closer to 80%. It's incredibly common though and not many of us make it thru life without it.
do you need to talk about your hsv1 oral infection with partners? Well you should. You know you have it. it sheds periodically even without any obvious cold sores present too. You should be discussing herpes in general with partners before sex and oral sex because you want to know their status - both for their own hsv1 status as well as you want to know if they have hsv2 or not. wouldn't you appreciate it if before someone performed oral sex on you they let you know that they had herpes?
You aren't going to transmit your oral herpes from sharing food and drink with adults. small children and infants this is a small risk but not adults. Terrific info on oral herpes at www.ashastd.org under the herpes info section.
grace