A little rant here!

[StillMe]

Re reading about suppressive therapy since I am on my 3rd for sure ob since diagnosis in December (could b a few more but have been so busy working for, then starting school I honestly can't remember). Seems like since I found out them obs just wanna invade my space and cause me pain to where it's uncomfortable to walk sometimes and even hurt when I lay down. Forget about the burning with peeing! :''( So...I click a link that led me to an article on WebMD that says again how routine testing for ghsv is still not recommend...even for pregnant women if they don't have symptoms. I just don't get it. How can you not test for something so common and who majority of those with it are asymptomatic??? If the only way for a person who never had an ob, or one so mild it could have been a 100 different things, to know is by a blood test then why are the blood tests considered so unreliable and unwarranted? It feels to me the medical community is saying "eegh no big deal....if you have it but it doesn't show then well you are all good! Sorry for the one you unknowingly pass it to who happen to not be an asymptomatic person. But by the way if you are symptomatic be sure to tell people you wish to be intimate with you have herpes to help inform and possibly reduce the spread!" It makes no sense to me! I truly feel that one way we can lessen the stigma is by putting it on equal platform as the other STIs (because Lord knows I'm still too (everything) to shout it from the rooftops and do my part). If it's not on equal ground then it's already ostracized and therefore so are the ones affected by it. Idk. Just had to get that little bit out. Thanks! ;)

[Edt720]

Those same type of thoughts are running through my head right now. I just got tested yesterday for herpes because I'm having what I assume is a breakout. I had a baby 6 weeks ago and when I went to my OB to get tested and she confirmed my suspicions of this possibly being herpes I just couldn't and still can't understand how I didn't know till now. You would think they'd testing pregnant women. Its a simple f*ing blood test...and it's ridiculous to have to specifically ask to be tested for herpes during an STD test. It pisses me off to think that I could've passed this on to my baby if I had him vaginally and had an unknown outbreak.

 

[optimist]

@Edt720 The women at highest risk of passing herpes to their babies are those who test negative at the beginning of pregnancy and contract HSV near the end of pregnancy. 25-30% of pregnant women have genital herpes and most are unaware. Those with established infections have a 1 in 5500 chance of passing it on during birth. Very, very low. Those who become infected in late pregnancy have a 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 chance of passing it on. Extremely high risk. But you can imagine why testing would be so complicated. First, you'd be dealing with the majority of the 25-30% freaking out about already being HSV+ and having to process that diagnosis during pregnancy. Those who were negative would then have to have their partners tested to check to determine whether they are vulnerable and many of those partners would then be dealing with processing a diagnosis during the partner's pregnancy. I can understand why pregnancy testing is unmanageable. I'm not saying I'm not in favor of more regular testing, but pregnancy specific testing would need to be focused on HSV negative women with positive partners to truly be effective and the timing would have to be very specific and the collateral damage of the huge number of people processing positive results is something to consider.