Worth the risk to disclose?

[Wonderlust]

I’m coming here because I have no one to talk to about this. 

I’ve  had hsv2 for 7 years. 

I began hanging out/talking to a coworker last summer. This went on for a few months, nothing physical ever happened.

He asked me if I wanted to become more serious, date exclusively. I freaked and told him I’d decided not to because we worked together, albeit different shifts, I didn’t want to make work more stressful than it already was. We work in healthcare.

He took it so well, said it wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but that we’d remain friends. 

It has been 7 months since then. We still text almost daily, we still hang out a few times a month. We’ve gone on trips. 

The problem is I want to be with this guy, I’m afraid that if I told him and got rejected... well then I’d have to face him at work.  The shame, the embarrassment would hit me every single time. 

Do I take that risk? 

[Melissa]

From the sounds of things, he seems like a really decent guy! He knows you very well and you are both in the healthcare field so I’m sure he knows quite a bit about HSV too. I say you risk it. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by his reaction.

 

In all honesty, I was just diagnosed a month and a half ago with gHSV-1 and I have randomly told people at my workplace. I feel that telling people about it releases the shame that we feel surrounding it. Everyone has been so kind!! 

[_a_rayofsunshine_]

Take the “risk”. 

[100918]

I say go for it...if you never try, the answer is always no. He can only say yes if you tell him.