Thanks for the question. As you may know, genital herpes is caused by a virus infection by HSV or Herpes Simplex Virus. It can be spread from affected person to a non-affected person through sexual contact. But even oral contacts can also cause the spread of this virus. Once infected, the virus will stay dormant in the body of the person which is infected and will come back to an active state when suitable time comes. Suitable situations are when the person suffers from stress or other sorts of illnesses. There are no complete medical treatments available till date for treating Herpes. Usually, infected people are treated according to the symptoms of infection. Antiviral medications are administered in patients to ease out the severity of outbreak. Actually, there is no method found yet to determine whether you can transmit the virus or not. Perhaps your doctor may be wronged with regard to his opinion about the possibilities of spread. But it is found that genital sores, which are seen evidently in patients having HSV infection, causes an increase in risk of transmitting the virus. The only possible way to prevent spread of the virus is abstaining from sex. Or you can decide to use condoms, which are not fool proof in preventing the spread of the disease. It is also advised to have only one partner for the rest of life. Other practices of having sex can increase possibility of outbreak and spread of infection. Hope I have answered well. Take care.