Reddit reviews The Good News About the Bad News: Herpes: Everything You Need to Know

I read that same thing here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005LQ6USY/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1526011359&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=herpes

Assuming that : (a) your partner knows you have genital HSV2; and (b) you don't have sex during outbreaks...

Then the transmission rates, PER YEAR, are as follows:

For male to female transmission rates per year:

Without antivirals and w/o condoms approximately 10% chance of transmission per year

With daily antivirals (particularly valtrex) OR condoms approximately 5% chance of transmission per year

With daily antivirals AND regular condom use approximately 2.5% chance of transmission per year

For female to male transmission rates per year:

Without antivirals and w/o condoms, approximately 4% chance of transmission per year.

With daily antivirals OR condoms, the risk of transmission in this scenario would likely be reduced by 50% (as for female-to-male), so there would an approximate 2% transmission risk per year.

With daily antivirals OR regular condom use, the risk of transmission would again be reduced likely by 50% down to an approximate 1% chance of transmission per year.

Source: Terri Warren's book on herpes pgs. 35 - 38. Terri states here the risk of transmission from female to male is 4% assuming (a) there has been disclosure of herpes status to your partner and (b) no sex during outbreaks.

HOWEVER, in the above cited pages, Terri mainly discusses the % risk of transmission from male to female. My numbers above for female to male transmission are approximations based on the math that Terri employs in this section of her book when she discusses the risk of transmission for male to female couples. Therefore the actual risk of transmission from female to male may, in practice, fluctuate somewhere between 1-3% if regular condoms, daily antivirals, or some combination of both are used.

If this is confusing to anyone (I can't seem to write this out with sounding verbose), feel free to ask questions.

Edit: to change “genital herpes” to “HSV 2”