HERPES

Talk About Herpes | Cold Sores Stigma

Experience…
As someone with what used to be 4 to 5 oral hsv 1 outbreaks a year (now one to two a year) having outbreaks that ppl could actually see (at school, social events etc) has caused me a lot of stress. Most recently I`m terrified of unintentionally passing hsv1 to someones genital through "shedding" during oral sex. The idea that I should need to use a condom/dental damn for all oral sex, even w a managamous partner causes me a great deal of anxiety and I`m unaware of other options aside from revealing my occasional cold sore occurence to any partner or taking daily suppressive therapy to decrease the risk of transmission. It seems like a huge ordeal for someone who gets 1-2 outbreaks a year but I feel obligated to protect partners and am not sure I know how to discuss my cold sores with partners who I`m not sure get them. Unlike the article on the main page says (about the double standard btwn oral and genital herpes). On the contrary, I find that oral herpes (as noted, almost always contracted non sexually as a child) has been HIGHLY stigmatized because of genital herpes. Now I don`t believe either should be, but there is a lot of disgust and shame around mere cold sores, as ppl seem to think they are somehow sexually transmitted. Instead of doing what the website suggests and proving to everyone how similar the viruses are (why is there no discussion of shingles or chicken pox?) I would prefer ppl simply know the truth about the viruses, including how common they both (especially oral hsv 1). We rarely ever refer to chicken pox or shingles as types of herpes but all of a sudden oral herpes seems to be replacing the term `cold sores`. I wonder why, but it sure hasn`t helped de-stigmatize cold sores at all. [47405]

Gender: F
Age: 29
Married: N
State: IL
Country: USA

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