Hello. Thank you for writing to us at healthcaremagic Genital herpes is acquired by sexual contact with an infected sexual partner. The chances of acquiring herpes are more if the sexual partner has an active episode of herpes. At other times chances are less but not Zero and therefore most of the cases of new herpes infection occur in patients whose sexual partners were not having any obvious sores during sexual encounter. In those who have oro-labial herpes/cold sore already have good immunity against the virus, therefore, in these individuals if they acquire new herpes infection in genital region, the episodes are milder or clinically silent and are not frequent unlike a case with primary genital infection with the virus. In these cases it is difficult to know whether they have genital herpes or is the blood test indicative of past infection/cold sore. In the case of your boyfriend it is also not certain whether he even acquired the infection Or not. Going for a type specific herpes test can be helpful because oral herpes is usually caused by type 1 Hsv and Genital herpes by Type 2 Hsv. Also, if he tests positive for both type 1 and type 2 Hsv, it is likely that he also has genital herpes apart from cold sores Regards