Understanding Genital Herpes: HSV-1 vs. HSV-2

HSV1 is oral. cold sores/canker sores. i get them every few months or so usually. used to get them as a kid a lot. it stopped for years and then more recently i’ve had them every few months. HSV2 is genital. my husband has it and he used to get breakouts every month or so. there is medication he was given for when he has breakouts. the more he took it when he had it (instead of letting it go away on its own) the less they appeared. he doesn’t get breakouts often recently

HSV2 is apparently much more painful and has more frequent breakouts. HSV1 genitally does usually come from oral HSV and it is a little harder to transmit but still transmissible. you might have like one initial HSV1 breakout that’s super bad and then could never have one again

Typically HSV2g has more common breakouts according to my doctor. HSV1g is more likely to spread to someone’s mouth through oral because that’s the tissue it prefers. Other than that I don’t think there are many differences!