herpes outbreak #2, five years later...

[belenen]

icon: "overwhelmed (the character Keenan from "Playing By Heart," with hands over their face covering their eyes and head tilted back)"Last Sunday I started to feel a bit off, and by Monday night I was sure -- I was having my second-ever genital herpes outbreak. I went to the clinic on Tuesday and got meds, and honestly while it was somewhat

Comments

[queerbychoice]

It is a difficult hand to be dealt, stigma-wise, and your upfrontness about says volumes about your ethics.

I'm a little unclear about how this second outbreak verifies that it's really genital herpes, though? Both the oral herpes virus and the genital herpes virus can potentially infect either location, so the only differences I know of between them are that the genital herpes virus is somewhat more likely to infect the genitals and is also reputed to be very slightly more severe, on the average. I don't think there's any foolproof way to distinguish which of the viruses you're infected with other than getting the virus tested in a lab.

In any case: *hugs*

[belenen]

thank you.

Well, it doesn't actually verify, it just disproves the unlikely but possible thing I was told about where it would recur only in its preferred location (and type 1 likes the mouth). I'm 99% sure I have type 1 because that is what the person who gave it to me has (theirs is oral).

*hugs back*

[queerbychoice]

Oh, it can recur wherever you were exposed to it but does tend to recur less often if you were exposed in its unpreferred location. Which would help explain why you went five years between outbreaks! It also tends to recur less and less often over time, so the next one might be ten or twenty years, or, you know, never! So you're not likely to have to worry about many future outbreaks. :-)

[cactus_rs]

Have you seen Adam Ruins Everything? He has a great episode about why everyone should chill the fuck out about herpes.

[belenen]

omg, I love that show, though I'm annoyed that it isn't Belenen Ruins Everything because that feels like SUCH a me title. I haven't seen that episode yet, I shall have to look it up and see if there is a transcript/subtitles.

[re_vised]

Two in five years is not bad! I applaud your being out about having herpes. I have a friend who has it, but she doesn't say anything to anyone. (She's married, so I suppose it's a mute point.) She had a terrible time dealing with the stigma.

[belenen]

That is true! I have been relatively lucky and should be grateful!

The stigma is so ridiculous *shakes head* I think if people realized how usually mild and prevalent it is they'd get over it, but people have to be willing to be out...

[belenen]

I agree! plus, it's ridiculous that cold sores are treated like nothing while genital herpes is treated like plague -- they can both create the same thing. *shakes head*

[webgirluk]

I'm sorry to read that you're going through this :-( It's not helpful when we live in a world that enables stigmatising things.

[belenen]

*nods* thank you for the sympathy.