How easy is it to catch genital herpes? Will a condom offer much protection? Frankly, I'm pretty confident about a condom's ability to protect against HIV, and the other main nasty STDs out there. But Herpes, I've heard all you have to do is come in contact with the skin of the infected person and now you've got it for life. You can't be stroking away between a girl's legs and not have you skin touch hers down there. Condoms wouldn't do crap in that case. That scares the sh*t out of me. I'm herpes(oral and genital) free, and don't want to have that crap for life. How do you avoid it?