Taking a Step Back

Thursday November 20, 2008

Lately I've been finding myself somewhat depressed about the number of posts in the STD Forum where people talk about their genital herpes diagnosis like it's the end of the world. It's not. Finding out you have herpes isn't fun, but it doesn't spell the end of your love life - let alone the rest of your existence. If you learn all that you can about the disease so that you can talk to any future partners about the real risks they are undergoing, you may find out that it doesn't affect your love life that much at all. Most of my friends with genital herpes find that, if anything, being honest about their diagnosis with the people they are dating is a great way to weed out those they wouldn't want to be involved with anyway. Besides, the CDC estimates that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 5 men is infected with HSV-2... so you're hardly alone.