Herpes. A public service announcement. And a poll too!

[Connonym]

Hey interwebs, I have herpes and there's a good chance that you or someone you know does too. Feel free to mock, point and stare. I know everyone thinks it's hilarious.

Today I got set off once too often by someone (not here) cracking jokes about Paris Hilton being a walking herpes infection. I got infected 6 years into my marriage while I was pregnant. I thought my life was ruined and I was stuck forever with a cheating scumbag husband.

Studies suggest that as many as 1/3 adults in the US have herpes but most are unaware. An even higher percentage of American adults has oral herpes which is different form of the same virus (also related to shingles and chicken pox). It is the virus that causes canker sores in the mouth. Except in newborns and the immune impaired (such as AIDS or cancer compromised patients) herpes is generally a relatively harmless skin condition with social stigma being the worst part of it.

I'm tired of the jokes when I know that there are plenty of other people like me who have herpes. It doesn't have to ruin your love life. There are ways to decrease the likelihood of transmission and, some studies suggest you're less likely to get it from a person who knows they carry the diagnosis than from a person who does not. If you're sexually active I urge you to go online (here's a good place to start http://www.cdc.gov/std/Herpes/STDFact-Herpes.htm) and look up the signs and symptoms of herpes so that you can better know your own status.

Just remember that the next time you crack a joke about dirty herpes whores that there's a 1/3 chance that the person you're talking to may have it.


For kicks, how about an anonymous poll?

[Deja Q]

1. My sympathies to anyone victimized by a !*@&#^$ cheater.

:hug:

[some guy]

2. other

I don't know anyone who I know has herpes. They may have, and I don't know it. That's the most likely true answer, I would guess.

:hug:

[LaraMN]

3. I have several friends who have it (that I know of)

and I don't consider any of them whorish.

[triguy46]

4. Its a shitty deal any way you look at it.

[MiserableFailure]

5. I have what I think is HSV-1

I get a cold sore above my upper lip every 2-3 years or so, during winter. It's my understanding that some huge percentage of Americans, have the HSV-1

Are you saying that you have the HSV-2, which more often apepars in genital herpes? This from my understanding is the more serious and more embarrassing case.

"It is estimated that 100 million American’s who are infected with HSV-1 contracted the virus as a young child. Due to the substantial time of living with the virus, by the time they reach adulthood only about 5% will find it to be a medical problem and seek treatment.

The estimated 40 million American’s infected with the HSV-2 virus acquired the virus as a teen or as a sexually active adult. Those infected will, on average, experience 4-6 outbreaks that first year, with a decrease in outbreaks occurring over time."

[Roon]

10. I had some warts on my lip

so I treated them with an OTC treatment that freezes the wart. The trauma I inflicted on my lip by freezing triggered the biggest, nastiest, cold sore I ever got. I couldn't open my mouth,couldn't eat, it was terrible. I got some meds on stand by in case I get another cold sore. But they aren't fun.

[crim son]

6. I've dated people with herpes and not caught it.

I have at least two friends with herpes. There are STDs that are cured with a course of medication and there are those that are not; herpes is one of the latter. Somehow, herpes has a stigma that, say, chlamydia doesn't. It makes no sense.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

24. viruses tend to be stigmatized because there is no cure.

[stuntcat]

7. at least 3

My closest friend has it, another friend I grew up with has it, and I'm told another old so-so friend has it.
I used to have Crazy life, I was usually the innocent one in my crowd though :)

I get a canker sore about twice a year but it's since I was a teenager, before I ever even kissed anyone, does that make me like a sicko?

[Madrone]

8. I have a good friend that has it.

She was in a long term, commited relationship with a man that had it - knew he had it - and didn't tell her.

She goes through horrible anxiety any time she thinks about dating someone ... because she can't NOT tell someone she's going to be intimate with that she has it. I feel for her a great deal and am SO thankful I don't have to go through that. There but for the grace of god and all that.

[Roon]

11. That's like me with my hiv

I hate dating because I won't do anything with anyone unless they know I have it. Yes, I have been shunned.

[Madrone]

13. I have some gay men with HIV in my past as well....

...well....not in my "PAST" ... but in my past. I haven't fag-hagged it (can I say that without getting in trouble?) in a number of years but I've had a handful of very dear friends go through living, and dying, with AIDS. Horrible. Horrible on them, horrible on their partners if they had them.... :cry: I know you just gotta suck it up and deal with what life gives ya but ... I'm sorry Roon. :hug:

[Roon]

14. I have an online fag-hag from New York

Never saw her in person but I have been chatting with her for ten years. Thanks for the hug! :hug:

[Madrone]

15. Awesome!!

Sometimes online friends can turn out to be the BEST ones. Yeah ... I miss hanging out with the "girls" and hitting the gay bars. Now I live in Podunkville and I suspect there are more full closets around here than people that feel comfortable in the open.

I still say a drag show is the most fun EVAH! :D Can't wait to do it again.

Have a peaceful night, Roon. I'm going to turn in! :hi:

[Roon]

16. Night! (eom)

[Roon]

9. My ex-roommates ex-wife has herpes

She caught it from her cheating husband (not my roomie but another guy)

[Redbear]

12. You rock, Connonym.

I know a couple where she has it and he doesn't and they have had a wonderful relationship.

[kath]

17. Actually, HSV-1 or oral herpes, does not cause canker sores in the mouth, It causes those big 'ol

nasty weeping, crusty cold sores at the edge of the lips.

I don't think that the (presumed) virus that causes canker sores has been identified yet.

[Oeditpus Rex]

18. Would the three people who voted for the fourth option

kindly meet me in the alley between Fifth and Sixth streets, behind Johnny's Bar, about 6 p.m. today? I'd like to speak with you.

Thanks! :hi:









Assholes.

[BlueIris]

19. Tee hee. Make out with me. nt

[Party Line]

20. I just figure that

atleast 3 freepers have visited this thread.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

27. liberals can be assholes too. there is atleast a couple of du'ers i know who think

std's happen to bad people.

[redqueen]

28. kinda like that 'being poor only happens to bad people' shit

:grr:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

29. yup, much like that.

[kay1864]

21. I saw this amazing set of data awhile back...

From the CDC:



"NHANES" = National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

[Throwing Stones]

22. Good Post

Glad to see someone posting about this issue and the misconceptions around it. I lived with a woman for 9 years who had been infected via date rape prior to our meeting. We were careful and I never became infected.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

23. you know on a another forum someone referred to be as an 'std infested' whore

i think its very cruel and un-progressive to use a sickness/possible sickness as an insult. its beyond normal cruelty and callousness.

sorry about your herpes. people have illnesses. its not right to judge them because of it.

having an unwanted bacteria/virus is not who you are.

:hug:

[raccoon]

25. Kudos to you for starting this thread. K&R. nt

[merh]

26. I've had oral herpes since I was a baby.

I've lived with it and the embarassment and stigma for as long as I can remember. I got it as a toddler when I was given the chicken pox/small pox vaccine and polio vaccines. Fever blisters filled my mouth and throat and were in my stomach and all over my lips. The doctors scared my mom and said lukemia, they struggled to figure out what it was and fortunately finally did after IVs and tests and probing and poking which I remember all too well.

Stress causes outbreaks, as does too much sun exposure, fatigue/exhaustion, foods high in vitamin C and D, taking vitamin C, fevers, head colds, flu, etc, all cause outbreaks for me. I made my first communion with a fever blister the size of a plum on my upper lip, my confirmation, the fever blister was the size of a grape and on my bottom lip. Like I said, stress causes the outbreaks and I've lived with them for quite a long time. I have never, ever given them to anyone else, in any form.

I highly recommend making l-lysine a part of your vitamin regiment and keeping out of the sun and limiting your vitamin C and D intake. When you feel that all too familiar itch that the outbreak is coming, double up on the l-lysine. If you get a cold, have a fever, feel like crap, are exhausted, double up on the l-lysine and drink plenty of water.

As far as the stigma, I had herpes before most folks knew what it was, the "dirty" part of it has never bothered me, the Paris comments. I know they are uninformed and if the opportunity presents itself, I try to inform them that they are uninformed and their comments can be cruel to sufferers. At this stage of my life, their nonsense doesn't bother me though.

[Connonym]

31. L lysine is GREAT stuff

I've found it much more effective than the spendy prescription antivirals.

[merh]

32. No joke.

I've never had any luck with the antivirals and they are too expensive to be so useless.

Good luck to you and thanks for the thread. Don't let ignorant fools bother you.

[redqueen]

30. EVERYONE who chose option # is wrong.

unless you're a hermit, that is.

[FloridaJudy]

33. Danged near *everybody* has got herpes!

Of one kind or another. Something like over 90% of the population tests positive for either type 1 or type 2 herpes antibodies. Not everybody gets outbreaks though. I have the oral type. I used to get a lot of blisters as a kid, but these days it only happens if I'm really sick with the flu or some other nasty illness.

Traditionally, type 1 causes outbreaks above the waist, and type 2 below, but there's a lot of cross-over. I'll leave it to your imaginations how that most commonly happens, but there was an interesting article in a Pediatrics journal a few years back: it seems there were several cases of kids who had herpes of the knee. They got recurring blisters that had been cultured and tested positive for herpes. That seemed kind of weird, until one pediatrician came up with the explanation, and querying the kids' parents confirmed it.

What has traditionally been the response of many a mom when her child comes in crying over a skinned knee? To "kiss it and make it all better". Mom's an asymptomatic oral herpes carrier, she kisses junior's bleeding boo-boo and transfers the virus. Case solved.

One hopes that these days people are more educated about not kissing bleeding wounds: I'm a great believer in the healing powers of Superman band-aids, myself.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

34. very interesting. nice sig line too. i used to have a vonnegut quote on my sig line for years

"no names have been changed to protect the innocent as god almighty protect them as a matter of heavenly routine". kv

[racaulk]

35. Kudos to you for starting this thread, Connonym.

I've been getting fever blisters and canker sores in my mouth for as long as I can remember. They usually show up whenever I'm under a lot of stress. The fever blisters are irritating and not pleasant to look at (and they occur only on my upper lip, strangely) and the canker sores hurt like hell, but it's nothing I can't live with. I take two pills everyday, my multivitamin and my L-lysine tablet--as you noted upthread, L-lysine is wonderful!

But the social stigma of herpes is cruel and unnecessary. Thank you for stating such in a much better way than I ever could have.

:yourock:

[Seashell Eyes]

36. anyone who picks the "dirty slut" option is a fucking asshole

and ignorant. So many people have it and they can't all be sluts. Also, people can have it for years without showing symptoms. It's not life threatening or serious in any way. It's not fucking leprosy. If there is a stigma with type 2, than there should be a stigma with type 1 as well. People should wear dental dams to kiss.

[Shine]

37. Given the stats, I suspect we ALL know someone with herpes, whether they/we know it, or not

and, for the record, Connonym, I think you totally rock. :yourock:

:hug: