Having herpes? It's not a big deal at all

Can You Die From Herpes? How serious is genital herpes?

Many people have this question in their mind that can anyone die from herpes. The fact is that reports say that several people are infected from herpes by their childhood. HSV-1 virus usually travels from skin to skin with normal contact.

Living with herpes: It's not a big deal at all

Herpes causes blisters and ulcers. These can be painful but normally clear up within 2-3 weeks. However, the virus will remain dormant in your body and it is normal for herpes outbreaks to reoccur.

Note that herpes is not much dangerous disease until you face a serious health condition along with it. As it make your immune system weaker so there are more chances of facing other dangerous health problems. The best way to stay out of trouble is to get herpes tested on time and follow advise of medical professionals.

Herpes also leads to HIV virus and this is the major cause of death in most of the cases, also affected person can cause trouble for their partners. It is good to stay aware about related symptoms of herpes and follow proper guidance from medical experts.

It’s possible for pregnant women to pass herpes on to their children, causing what’s known as neonatal herpes (herpes in a baby). The virus is much more dangerous for babies and can cause miscarriages during pregnancy, and lead to brain damage, or even death in newborns.

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Why Do We Act Like Herpes Is a Sexual Death Sentence?

We turn herpes into something tragic when it's not a big deal. It's a skin rash — if you even get the skin rash.

Genital herpes (aka herpes simplex type-2) is insanely prevalent, affecting 1 in 5 American women ages 14 to 49. It's spread by vaginal, oral, and anal sex, so unless you're abstinent or your partners haven't had sex of any kind, you can't totally safeguard against it. Condoms lower your risk, but the virus can reach skin from the area outside one. Many people transmit herpes unknowingly: Up to 90 percent of carriers never have an outbreak.

So not much happens to your body, but plenty happens to your spirit: Quality of life plummets after diagnosis, per research in the journals Sexually Transmitted Infections and Genitourinary Medicine, and low sexual self-esteem and anxiety about sex linger for years, says Myers. "I was depressed for a long time," says Austin. "Who would want to sleep with someone who had herpes? I felt incredibly alone." Eventually, she joined an online support group. "The more I read other people's stories, the more I realized it isn't a big deal," she says.

This TEDx talk by Ella Dawson is amazing and you should all watch it.

Story: having herpes isn’t actually that big of a deal.

1. It doesn’t mean you are irresponsible.

After diagnosie, maybe you will be the most careful when it comes to safe sex. When Iyou are interested in sleeping with a crush, you will be going to have a good long talk about STD risks, swap test results, and invest in some condoms. After you have had to come to terms with the fact that sex is a calculated risk. and I just happened to fall on the wrong side of the numbers despite my paranoia.

2. Finding the “culprit” is a waste of time.

Of course, playing the STD version of Whodunnit? could be fun if you’re into pointless stress and wracking your brain for the details of every sexual encounter you’ve ever had, but that’s not really my idea of a good time. Herpes can lie dormant for years until something triggers an outbreak and in my case, it was impossible to trace the origin of infection. My time was better spent on basically anything else.

3. Telling recent partners actually went way better than expected.

I’ve heard stories of friends who, after contracting an STD, did the responsible thing and informed their recent partners, only to be shamed for it. I was lucky enough to have extremely understanding people in my life who were grateful for my honesty and acted like adults about the whole thing. I guess I just have good taste.

4. The first outbreak was the worst.

My first herpes outbreak lasted about a week, during which I was in a lot of pain and had a fever and other flu-like symptoms. It sucked, but after that, I was through the worst of it. Realising the severity of my first outbreak was a one-off experience stopped me from freaking out too badly. I knew it would never be as intense as that first time.

5. The symptoms are pretty mild.

This varies from person to person but for me, my symptoms aren’t too bad. I usually get a small outbreak around my period and otherwise, I’m fairly clear. It’s a mild inconvenience rather than a cause for stress, meaning I don’t really think about it most of the time. Miraculously, life goes on as usual.

6. Basically everybody has some strain of herpes, whether they know it or not.

About one in eight Americans have genital herpes and 90% of those people don’t even know they’re carrying the virus. That’s an insane amount of people walking around with a condition they don’t know about. When you add the that the 50% of the population who have cold sores, which is caused by a variation of the same virus, that’s a lot of infected people. Knowing this makes me feel like much less of a leper, or at the very least like I’m a leper with a bunch of secret leper friends.

7. It’s effectively a skin condition.

If people freaked out about cold sores as much as they did about herpes, we’d all be running around in hazmat suits. What makes herpes so awful is not the symptoms, it’s the stigma. Luckily, unlike the physical symptoms, stigma is all in the mind, so by changing the way we think and talk about herpes, we can change the experience of having it. When you begin to see it as a skin condition, it suddenly seems way less scary.

8. If I act like it’s not a big deal, it’s not.

Having herpes isn’t something most people broadcast, but I find that the more I own it, the better people respond. I don’t start every conversation with, “Hi, I have herpes. Nice weather today!” Still, if it comes up, I treat it like any other topic. When I treat it like a normal thing that normal people talk about, it suddenly becomes—you guessed it—normal.

9. I’m not the only one.

Because I speak so candidly about this, other people tend to feel safe speaking about their sexual health too. I was surprised how many of my friends responded with their own tales, divulging suspicions, diagnoses, and test results with the same openness. In my book, this can only be a good thing. Talking about sexual health is the path toward better sexual health!

10. It hasn’t killed my sex life.

Before I got herpes, I was terrified of ever contracting it, for fear no one would ever want to have sex with me again. I’m very happy to report that hasn’t been the case. Of course, there’s an extra consideration at play now—I need to be more careful and I always inform new partners that I have herpes, leaving it up to them to decide if they’re comfortable with the risk of contraction. But so far I haven’t been forced into a life of seclusion and celibacy, so I’ll chalk that up as a success.

11. The wonders of modern technology help with managing risk.

I guess scientists know that even people with herpes still have sex drives and so, to mitigate the risk of infection, I can swallow some handy little pills and get back to what I’d rather be doing—having sex instead of worrying about how contagious I might be.

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