Just been diagnosed with genital herpes - devastated

[Supernova1908]

I’ve just been diagnosed with genital herpes and I’m devastated (female, 45). I have blisters/sores on both my vaginal area and around my anus and I’m in agony, I’ve even taken the day off work today. The sexual health nurse gave me antivirals to take. After initially trying to remain optimistic yesterday, last night I stupidly started googling things and there was a previous thread on here about how awful people have found it, with near-constant outbreaks or symptoms that don’t go away even with antiviral medication. I’m completely panicking that this will be my life and it’ll ruin my sex life, relationship, holidays, activities, and my mental health 😩 Had anyone managed to live okay with this? Do you always get recurrent outbreaks?

Did you have many outbreaks @OkTrueBlue?

I think you may need to stay away from sex for a time. But everything is entitled to change, the STD isnt the end of things, it will go away with the right medication and advice.

Zombie thread

@Supernova1908 I know this is an old thread but can I ask how are things now op. have you continued to have further outbreaks?
Im suffering from my first ever outbreak and am devastated. im at the clinic today but need some reassurance from fellow sufferers that all will be ok and my life will not be ruined by this.
Hope all is now ok for you op.

Hey @helpiminpain, so sorry to hear you’re going through that - no, thankfully I had no more outbreaks and all has been well. It cleared up with the medication and time, yours will too I promise!! If you can, find out what type you have - mine was the type least likely to recur and so far it’s lived up to that. 🙏🏼 Sending best wishes, it’ll be okay!

It went away thankfully and I was back having sex a week or so later ☺️

@Supernova1908 thank you for replying op and fantastic news for you that you've had no further outbreaks.
im truly devastated and been reading horror stories, threads on here of women having monthly outbreaks. its really having a huge impact on my mental health already and im only 5 days into my first outbreak.
im at clinic later today and hopefully its the less severe strain. new dp does suffer cold sores but we were always careful or so we thought! to avoid kissing and oral sex when he's had outbreaks.

@helpiminpain oh honestly I was the same, I couldn’t stop crying for about 5 days and I was genuinely devastated, but with time and healing (plus trying to forget about the horror stories, no-one posts good stuff on the internet!) I began to feel better about it. Now if I got an outbreak I’d know what I was dealing with and I’d be calmer, I even bought a dose of aciclovir just in case!! It’s a cliche but ‘this too shall pass’, your body will naturally heal it as well and it’s so much rarer to be one of the people who gets monthly outbreaks and so on ❤️

Been to the clinic and as suspected it is herpes, just need to wait for the swab test results to come back to confirm if its type 1 or 2. Hopefully it'll be HSV1 as there's less chance of recurrence with that strain.
I have been given aciclovir tablets. i am devastated but hoping this is a one off occurrence.
I took the opportunity to have full sexual health screening whilst I were there and hopefully everything else will come back all clear.
Thank you op for making me feel more positive about this.

Hi, sexual health worker here!! We get approx 200 calls a day. Half of these calls will be about genital herpes. I cannot stress enough to Devasted patients that this and chlamydia are the most common STI’s although herpes is a skin on skin transmission condition. I have a loved one who has it and sadly it’s changed her. She now suffers anxiety so badly but has a lovely, caring and understanding partner. The thing that pisses me off the most is the ridiculous stigma!! No one blinks an eye if someone has a cold sore on their mouth! It’s because it’s on the genitals people are so weird about it! I’ve had many a patient cry on my shoulder, just because of the stigma, but they ALL go on to have relationships, marriage and babies!! The sad thing is you can have a full STI screening but it won’t pick up herpes unless you are having an active outbreak which we swab. Many private companies claim to do blood tests but these blood tests show positive if all you’ve had is a cold sore on your mouth! Due to it detecting the virus antibodies in the blood. It makes me so sad that this virus which also includes chicken pox and shingles and plain old cold sores (all herpes simplex) are treated with such stigma. It’s time we left this attitude behind for good. Please try and be positive about your life. I think if potential partners don’t want to know you then you’ve had a lucky escape! Wishing you all the best. If you start to suffer regular outbreaks there are very effective antivirals you can obtain from sexual health clinics or can even buy at an online chemist if you’re concerned about privacy. I just wished people knew just how common HSV is x

Hi, sexual health worker here!! We get approx 200 calls a day. Half of these calls will be about genital herpes. I cannot stress enough to Devasted patients that this and chlamydia are the most common STI’s although herpes is a skin on skin transmission condition. I have a loved one who has it and sadly it’s changed her. She now suffers anxiety so badly but has a lovely, caring and understanding partner. The thing that pisses me off the most is the ridiculous stigma!! No one blinks an eye if someone has a cold sore on their mouth! It’s because it’s on the genitals people are so weird about it! I’ve had many a patient cry on my shoulder, just because of the stigma, but they ALL go on to have relationships, marriage and babies!! The sad thing is you can have a full STI screening but it won’t pick up herpes unless you are having an active outbreak which we swab. Many private companies claim to do blood tests but these blood tests show positive if all you’ve had is a cold sore on your mouth! Due to it detecting the virus antibodies in the blood. It makes me so sad that this virus which also includes chicken pox and shingles and plain old cold sores (all herpes simplex) are treated with such stigma. It’s time we left this attitude behind for good. Please try and be positive about your life. I think if potential partners don’t want to know you then you’ve had a lucky escape! Wishing you all the best. If you start to suffer regular outbreaks there are very effective antivirals you can obtain from sexual health clinics or can even buy at an online chemist if you’re concerned about privacy. I just wished people knew just how common HSV is x

Hi sexual health worker here! This sounds like genital warts which is HPV family. Genital warts are treated with a blast of liquid nitrogen. The first outbreak of herpes is agony. Patients can barely walk. I hope all is ok with you now. There’s just not enough education about herpes. You can have a full STI screening but herpes can only be detected when an outbreak is active for swabbing so many think they don’t have any STI’s. It’s so so common but it’s the stigma which is ridiculous. No one bats an eye at a cold sore on the mouth! It’s time this stigma was left behind in the dark ages. I cannot stress enough how common herpes is! Over 200 calls a day and half of them are about herpes. Whether brand new outbreaks or subsequent outbreaks.