Please help! Very important!

[LMurphy19]

I suffer from cold sores, my partner knows this. Can I give my partner oral and kiss him when I DON'T have a cold sore? Is it safe to give him oral and kiss him when I DON'T have a cold sore?

[LMurphy19]

Thank you for answering :)

[Life360_Dave]

Hi, it would be best that both of you have a herpes blood test to confirm your status as many many people have hsv1 oral from childhood. If you both have it then you cant pass it back to eachother. Even giving oral sex, the risk of passing it genital would be close to zero if possible at all. Basicly you both would be immune to the same virus.
If you dont test just be aware that oral hsv1 sheds 9-18% of the time, meaning no visible sore but the virus is still on the surface so the risk is there.

[LMurphy19]

Thank you! :)

[TiminBoston]

Yes.  Very.  

I've done all of the above for nearly 20 years. and have never passed HSV1 to any partners (oral or genital).  You obviously have to be smart about fooling abstaining when you feel anything you think might be the famous "tingle".

You might want to get him tested just to make sure he doesn't already have antibodies (the majority of Americans do and most don't know it).  If he is already HSV1 positive, you can do whatever without ever worrying about passing anything on.