Maria (not our director Marian) sends us “My experience with HSV1” in the hopes it will help people:
I was diagnosed with herpes simplex type 1 on my vulva in early 2012 when I was 23 years old. I had an inflamed lump ‘down below’ and I went to see my local nurse who in turn referred me to a sexual health clinic in London. They reassured me that it did not ‘look like herpes’ and they swabbed the affected area. Ten days later I got a call to say that I had tested positive for herpes simplex type 1.
I immediately thought my life was over despite the girl on the phone being very reassuring telling me that it was “just the cold sore virus.” She sensed my apprehension and invited me in for a chat. Of course, in my frantic state I searched the internet looking for something that could give me more reassurance. There was little to be found other than how to “disclose” to a partner.
To this day the word disclose really irritates me. Nobody “discloses” cold sores when they are on the face. I actually ended up in my situation because of a harmless cold sore.
I met someone
When I met my now fiancé, I casually asked him did he get cold sores on his face. I felt relieved when he said he did from time to time. I was a year going out with him before I told him where exactly my cold sore had been. Why? Because medically he didn’t need to know and quite frankly, it was not his or anyone’s business where on my body I had hsv1. When I did tell him its location, he honestly didn’t bat an eyelid.
To confirm this approach was okay I spoke to an infectious disease consultant who said it was perfectly acceptable to tell a partner you have the cold sore virus in your system. There is no need to go into specifics. [Editor: there is no requirement to talk about any STI or HIV, unless the other person asks you about these. It is not a legal requirement to offer the information.] I have never had another outbreak apart from my initial one. And that really was only minor.
This is something I feel very strongly about. It breaks my heart that I spent so much time feeling guilty and ashamed just because by the grace of God this virus happened to be on my vulva instead of my lips. I didn’t do anything wrong. All I did was experience having oral sex and there aren’t too many people out there who haven’t done that. According to WHO “In 2016, an estimated 3.7 billion peopled under the age of 50, or 67% of the population, had HSV-1 infection (oral or genital).”
There are more people with this virus than without. I am sick of sensationalism in the news. It’s not fair on people and it needs to stop. It is time for people to get the facts. This should not be a burden when in fact it’s a part of life that happens to most of us whether we know about it or not. As a society we have broken stigmas in the past. It can be done again.
Editor adds: Maria’s experience of HSV1 is common. You could say that type 1 doesn’t “like” the genital region, because it rarely recurs there. You can see transmission details for oral sex here.