Gender and Herpes
Last report from last week's APHA meeting abstracts: Sara Head found that women were more likely to test positive for Herpes Simplex Virus Type II (HSV-2), the virus strain associated with genital herpes. Head also found that African-Americans and those less fearful of HSV-2 were more likely to test positive for HSV-2. In a separate presentation, Head2 found that Caucasians were more likely than African-Americans to engage in unprotected oral sex. Head found that 18.6% of participants reported using a condom for oral sex at least once in the past 3 months. Sara Head is a research assistant at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health.
After spending most of the week on topics which I have little or no personal context for, I thought I'd finish up APHA week with a topic I know all too well. I've been living with HSV-2 since 1996. About half of that time was spent living as a man, and half as a woman, but I haven't noticed a distinct difference in the way I perceive my herpes, or in how other people react to it. Normally, I don't think Tab A and Slot B make that much of a difference in terms of interaction, but when tabs-and-slots are the focus of the interaction, it becomes a bigger deal. Socially, I think of myself as a man; sexually, I'm a FTM, and that affects the risk assessments that my partners and I have to make.
After spending most of the week on topics which I have little or no personal context for, I thought I'd finish up APHA week with a topic I know all too well. I've been living with HSV-2 since 1996. About half of that time was spent living as a man, and half as a woman, but I haven't noticed a distinct difference in the way I perceive my herpes, or in how other people react to it. Normally, I don't think Tab A and Slot B make that much of a difference in terms of interaction, but when tabs-and-slots are the focus of the interaction, it becomes a bigger deal. Socially, I think of myself as a man; sexually, I'm a FTM, and that affects the risk assessments that my partners and I have to make.