Myths About Living With Herpes

Before being diagnosed with herpes we have so many misconceptions about who has herpes and what it is like living with herpes. Honestly most of them are myths. I'll go through some myths that I had and I’d love to hear what yours are. 

Let me also say this: I taught sexed when I was in high school. There was this really cool program through Planned Parenthood where high-schoolers who went through Planned Parenthood’s training could go out into San Diego high schools and pier educated other high school kids on sexed. My point in telling you this is that I was educated in sexed, and specifically herpes. I knew how you got it, I knew how you didn’t get it and I knew how common it was. I still had so many silly myths or preconceived notions about living with herpes. 

So here are/were my myths:

• I truly believed that the type of person who would have herpes looked like Marilyn Manson. In my mind, I was never going to sleep with someone like that so therefore I would never get herpes. 
• If you were in a relationship you wouldn’t get herpes
• If you’re married you didn’t have herpes
• Oral herpes was not the same as genital herpes
• Oral herpes in very rare occasions could spread to your genitals or your partners
• The “type” of person who had it was nobody I was going to associate with
• If I like the guy, I mean really really liked the guy, then there was no way he had herpes
• I knew him as a friend before we dated so there is no way
• If the person had herpes then he would of course tell me
• There was no way you wouldn’t know that you have herpes

Do any of these sound familiar to you?!?!?!

Here’s what I asked our community prior to filming this and here’s what they said:

• That people who sleep around with a lot of people most likely would get herpes. When honestly it only takes one time to catch something. You don't have to be sleeping around with so many people 
• My thoughts were those are the promiscuous people who get those issues. Nope. It just takes 1 time.
• A myth I had was I thought when someone had herpes (more specifically HSV-2), that their outbreak was constant and it’d be easy to notice/see and easy to avoid.
• I believed that I’d be able to see it prior to jumping between the sheets. I used to always take a shower with my partner so that I could explore and see. 
• A myth was I thought herpes was extremely rare (like 1 out of 100, or 1 out of 1,000 people had it
• I thought that it was only on the genitals but I get mine on my legs and on my buttox. I guess I was wrong
• That if you got this you’d die
• If you got this you could never talk about it to anyone, because nobody else in the world has it. 
• I’d be alone or have to settle and be with the person who gave it to me. 

As you can see there are so many myths and misconceptions when it comes to the HSV viruses. I tried to answer them along the way and explain that myth. I hope with this it helped you unwind some of your thoughts, open your mind and answered some questions. 

With that all being said, I want to say that turning to google is the worst thing you can do. OMG have you seen the pictures!?!?!?!? So per your request I’ve put together a toolkit that explains everything you need to know and want to know about herpes. Myths are debunked and you will get your answers to the questions you have about being diagnosed and living with herpes. There are 6 videos explaining everything from Herpes 101, ways to heal your outbreaks, how to tell your partner, how to prevent the next big outbreak and some other great tips. Anyway, you’ll want to check this out so you can learn everything you need to know. 

Get Your Herpes Toolkit