Virus With A Pedigree?

[MamaTried]

My story runs contrary to the perception some people have that those with herpes are dirty, promiscuous low-lifes. This is not to say that I am not a dirty, promiscuous low-life, or that there is anything wrong with being that. It's just that I got herpes about 5 months into a monogamous relationship with a 51-year-old physician. At first, she claimed that she had no idea she had it...she was asymptomatic. But later, she admitted that her former boyfriend, the CFO of a large financial corporation, had been married for 20 years to somebody who had it, so..... If nothing else, this story is a counterexample for those who believe that STDs are contracted only through wanton, drunken sex with people of ill-repute. Not that there's anything wrong with wanton, drunken sex with people of ill-repute... :-)

[mr_hopp]

I love that you shared this, MamaTried! (AND I love your sense of humor to boot! People of ill-repute can be fun! Ha!) The more we can get solid proof like this that herpes is an equal opportunity virus ;) the more this unfair stigma can be squelched.

 

This is also a perfect example of how much denial plays into so many herpes diagnoses — even physicians can convince themselves that they don't have herpes if there are no outbreaks! But viral shedding is a reality. So many people assume if they don't have an outbreak, they don't have herpes. Nowadays with the IgG test, there's no excuse to not know definitively. But not getting tested is a convenient way to deny what's true. And it's people like this that give herpes a bad name. It's people like this physician, in denial, putting others at risk that add to the stigma of mistrust and ill-reputedness. Let's change this bad reputation through honesty and transparency in relationship.

[rinapink76]

lmao ... don't worry you're not the first or the last :) Life does go on.