Inform your current and future partners about having genital herpes before having sex.
Consider taking daily antiviral preventive medication to decrease the likelihood of giving genital herpes to your partner. Daily medication can decrease the risk of giving it to your partner by 90 percent. Genital herpes can spread even if you have no symptoms or if the rash or blisters are fully healed.
Use condoms or dental dams which can help decrease the chance of spreading genital herpes. Genital herpes can, however, still be spread by contact with skin that is not protected by the condoms or dental dams.
Abstain from sex if you have a genital herpes outbreak or if you feel the symptoms of genital herpes coming on such as a tingling, itching, or burning sensation around your buttocks, legs, or hips which may occur a few hours or days before the painful blisters appear.
Wait to have sex until you are done taking the medication and the rash and blisters have fully healed.