Hi everyone! Like so many others have said I’m really happy that I stumbled across this thread. I’m a 36yr old woman, 2 teenage kids. I’m currently separated from my husband, for other reasons but we’ve been married 7 years.
Starting from the beginning tho. About 8 months (give or take) before we met. I noticed a small cluster of blisters on the inside of my thigh. I hadn’t been with anyone for atleast 6 months before that but I went to the Dr to figure out what was going on and almost immediately she says “ it looks like herpes” & took swabs to confirm. I lost myself that day! Like most of everyone else I thought my life was over, no one would want me. My emotions were a roller coaster. I told two people I was close too and I’ll admit the conversations went pretty well. In that first week I slowly started to accept this new part of my life and started to think things would actually be ok. However. The Dr calls me and actually says that the test came back NEGATIVE for herpes. Like Again with the freaking roller coaster! I was ecstatic tho. She didn’t know what it was and it was basically healed over at that point so Naturally I just went on about my life. I met my now husband. Fell in love, but I never felt the need to say anything to him cause I mean why, she said negative! I never went back for a follow up to figure out what exactly it was, so never took any specific blood tests. After we decided to be “serious” I did go for my physical, had tests run for STDs. All negative! {{Of course now after reading up I find out most Drs do not run the blood test for Herpes in the standard STD panel or whatever {face palm}} Being honest tho i did have that nagging feeling in the back of my head every now and than.
Fast forward 4 years into our marriage and BOOM! I notice a small cluster of like 3 bumps on my butt one day. They werent blisters but alil painful. But I guess being naive I didn’t think much about it. Than like a year later after a miscarriage, I noticed a small bump high up on my inner thigh. This time just one, again not blistered but painful and my heart dropped. I knew immediately what it was. That world ending feeling came back like a Mac truck.
But how do I tell my husband now. I know it’s not right and I’ve basically acknowledged that I’m a horrible person but I’ve struggled for the past 2 years, he hasn’t had any outbreaks or symptoms. I do feel some relief about that but still my heart and soul is in so much pain right now. I’m really struggling. I know I’m a crappy person. I feel like scum for waiting this long to say something. It’s definitely a constant battle. Like past posts have said the stigma surrounding Herpes makes everything so much harder.
But I disclosed here first. Hoping for some encouraging words cause I plan on telling him this week. We’ve been separated since June due to other reasons but honestly deep down the guilt has just consumed me.