u/RealAd8941

Reading reddit threads about people GHSV-1 being comforted about how at least you don't have HSV-2 the rare bad one. At least you're not one of those people., About how the symptoms are so much milder, how much less contagious it is, how there is so much less stigma, how it's infinitely more common than HSV-2 which is so rare

It's so frustrating knowing how similar these viruses supposedly are, how I was so close to just being able to have a normal life if it was a 1 instead of a 2.

The askmen threads about "Would you date a woman with HSV-2" everyone says they would never but when it's GHSV-1 they all have no problem with it since its the cold sore virus. The difference in tone whether its HSV-1 vs. HSV-2 is extreme.

I would pay any amount of money, go into debt for the rest of my life, do anything, just to turn that 2 into a 1.

Most genital herpes cases these days are HSV-1 (especially among young people) GHSV-1 is skyrocketing these days while HSV-2 cases are falling very fast, I still have no idea how I got stuck with the very rare virus that (generally) only older people have

It makes sense why they don't test for HSV-1 since it's common and it's very mild

But why not HSV-2? Only a small percent of the population has that. The antibody tests are way more accurate for HSV-2 than HSV-1. And type 2 is way more medically severe than HSV-1

They routinely test people for Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, HPV in women, etc. which are all much more common than HSV-2

The reason they say they don't have herpes on the standard STD panel is because it's so common and the tests are not accurate but that is only true for HSV-1

The studies show that genital HSV-1 has much milder symptoms and a lot less contagious

Also HSV-1 is a lot more common and less stigmatized since it is mostly spread non-sexually or through oral sex. It's the "cold sore" virus and it's not considered an STD. Most people have HSV-1 and it's pretty much inevitable to get it at some point whereas HSV-2 is almost always spread through unprotected intercourse and is an STD

No one has been sued or prosecuted for HSV-1 whereas there are clear cases of people with HSV-2 being publicly punished

I feel like if the swab result came back HSV-1 I truly would not have cared at all and not given it another single thought (other than disclosing of course). Type 2 is just so much rarer and severe

Just knowing a tiny piece of plastic could have saved us from all this insanity is so frustrating

When I got infected, my gifter wore a condom for 90% of the interaction but he stealthed me at the very end. It's crazy how even a few seconds of no condom can completely change someone's life

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/canberra-man-sentenced-for-knowingly-exposing-woman-to-genital-herpes/ar-AA22uckv

I wonder how the "no big deal" crowd can explain this. How can something be "not a big deal" when it leads to serious prison time and destroying their entire future? And yes, he definitely should have disclosed and this was an extremely shitty thing of him to do

I also wonder if this leads to a slippery slope where people who actually did disclose get punished since it's just a "he said she said" situation where they can just claim you didn't disclose.

Australia is the country that literally decriminalized STD's yet even the courts recognize HSV-2 is so much serious than all the other STDs that the law doesn't apply to it.

It's too bad the people who infected us were never punished. The woman who didn't disclose to him should be given the exact same sentence to him for example

Supposedly there are billions of people worldwide who have herpes

There are basically only 2 forums on the entire internet for herpes (this and HSVPositive) other than the tiny one by Terri Warren which is paid

HSVPositive only has 28k members while this one has 50k (larger since people without herpes can post here too) and there are only a few new posts per day on each on them.

Even if most people with herpes don't know they have it or if you only include english speakers with genital herpes since oral herpes don't care as much, that is still an insanely small amount of online activity about it. There are rarely any news or scientific articles about it either

Many people think HSV-2 is worse than HIV because of the meds that make HIV people undetectable and have no symptoms

But what about the advanced stage of HIV where it becomes AIDS. Would you rather have that or HSV-2? The majority of people with AIDS seem to recover normally after starting treatment but the risks are higher than just HIV

Both the CDC and WHO agree that 90% of people don't have HSV-2. And cases are falling very fast

It seems like only the most risky, promiscuous 10% of the population who constantly sleeps around with strangers unprotected has HSV-2 and we got tricked by them since they didn't disclose and lied to us. They probably get a kick out of infecting innocent people, it's disgusting

All the coping mechanisms for herpes exclusively apply to HSV-1 (e.g. It's so common, symptoms are mild, you can get it even with a condom or non-sexually etc.)