The ignorance drives me nuts!!!

[100918]

In a FB group I'm in, a woman posted that her toddler was having her first HSV-1 outbreak...and that she was exposed to it by someone other than her or her husband (they are both negative). What got me was that she said that it was "NOT the STD, it's HSV-1, NOT the other one"...

I responded to let her know that although HSV-1 can be spread by non-sexual ways, it IS still an STI and that her child will need to be aware of the risks of spreading it as she gets older.

The mom seemed to appreciate the information and told me that her child's pediatrician told her that it's NOT an STI (she believed me that it is and figures that her doctor was just trying to lessen her fear), and then someone else posted that HSV cannot be spread when you have no symptoms.

I kindly told her that she was 100% wrong about that and posted a link from the WHO that says that it can be spread without symptoms.

Her response? "I've had it for 35 years and have never spread it. Maybe you should do more than just research. Personal experience has a lot of weight" (or something to that effect). She's obviously not a member here or she would KNOW that what she was saying was absolutely false.

Took everything I had in me to not respond with "Listen here, Bitch...I was exposed by someone who had NO symptoms at the time..." Didn't want to out myself in a FB group, so I instead just told her that I personally know a handful of people who Have spread it without symptoms and that although she may have been lucky, or may have spread it without knowing...HSV most certainly Can be spread without symptoms.

The misinformation out there is insane!!!

 

Just needed to vent. 

[Tk2019]

I just laugh at people. I have had hsv 1 probably most of my life according to the off the charts index value on my IGG and never had a cold sore in my 31 years on this earth. 

But yes the lack of education is ridiculous. I really only know as much as I do because back in 2015 a doctor ordered an IGM test for me and told me I had "been exposed." Scared the shit out of me until I did some research. 

[Cwgrl100]

It seriously is crazy. The education out there is misleading!

They teach you that THIS is what HSV looks like and like these people are like the plague when in all reality? It's common, not all HSV symptoms present the same at all, and that's why so many people don't realize they have it!

That sort of information honestly got me in trouble. I was naive and wasn't as careful as I could've been because I thought people knew their status; that they would have clear symptoms and tell you if they had something. Wrong! And even a little more careful that time, I probably still would've gotten it. Maybe I would've known the non-stereotyped symptoms I was having was actually HSV sooner and I wouldn't have been in complete denial.

I'm jumping off my soapbox now. They need to change sex education in regards to HSV!