Every guide, by situation

Timing, the four facts a partner needs, a sample conversation as dialogue, the usual responses, and how to handle a no.

The legal, ethical, and practical answer to whether you must disclose, including cold sores and matched diagnoses.

For the partner who just heard the news: the study numbers, fair questions, and how to decide calmly.

The valacyclovir couples trial with its denominators, HSV-1 versus HSV-2, and why a group result is not a personal annual risk.

Asymptomatic shedding measured in the JAMA cohort, with denominators, and what it means for precautions.

Shedding and outbreak frequency by years since the first episode (Phipps, Benedetti), the CDC first-year statement, why the decline never reaches zero, and the levers that outperform the calendar.

Post-exposure playbook: the couples-study base rates, symptom and swab timing, CDC's 12-week testing rule with its quotes, the low-index false-positive caveat, and the conversation scripts.

The pooled condom studies, why condoms reduce but do not remove risk, and how they combine with daily antivirals.

How oral HSV-1 spreads, how common it already is, and the practical risk between cold sores.

How HSV-1 and HSV-2 differ in spread, location and recurrence, and why the type matters for dating.

Swab versus blood test, when each works, how long to wait after exposure, and reading the result.

The first outbreak versus later ones, how long each lasts, the warning signs, and what shortens them.

How HPV differs from herpes, whether it clears, kissing and oral HPV, and dating or telling a partner with HPV.

Which pairings close the transmission question and which do not, with the reinfection and prior-HSV-1 studies and their sample sizes.

Genital herpes and toilet seats, towels, bedding, and hot tubs, set next to oral herpes and saliva on cups, forks, and towels.

How long herpes can stay unnoticed, why tests can't date an infection, and what a new diagnosis means in a relationship.

The keypad code, its history, what it cannot do, and a decoder for the status labels on HSV dating profiles.

The honest medical answer to whether herpes matters, separated from the stigma.

The first weeks after diagnosis, when to start dating again, and what actually changes.

Prevalence by age band, shingles versus herpes, antiviral dosing after 50, disclosure with history, and where people over 50 meet.

The registered vaccine, antiviral, and gene-editing trials with NCT ids, phases, statuses, and dates as the registry listed them; the Herpevac lesson; what to use meanwhile. Re-checked quarterly.

Genital herpes is not an American Red Cross deferral if you feel healthy and well and meet the other rules. The NIH says you cannot donate while herpes or cold-sore lesions are active, and you can once they are dry and almost healed. KEDPLASMA: you can still donate if you have had or been exposed, genital herpes included, with a three-month delay after full recovery and completion of treatment. The pages do not name herpes antivirals. Herpes simplex is not on the FDA or 21 CFR 630.3 testing lists, and AABB says no FDA-licensed blood donor screening test exists; KEDPLASMA does not put genital herpes on its list of STDs that block donation. Plasma centers compensate donors and set their own rates.

What to tell a clinician before laser hair removal, a lip filler, or a tattoo if you have herpes, and when hyaluronic acid filler is not recommended.

Mild symptoms may be mistaken for a pimple or an ingrown hair, and a swab of a fresh sore is how you check.

When the risk of passing herpes to a baby is high or low, what clinicians do near delivery, and what egg, sperm, and surrogacy sources say about herpes.