I feel awful for possibly giving my girlfriend HSV-1, even though I was honest about having it.

Early on, I told her I had HSV-1. I even showed her my test results and explained that it’s super common. I genuinely thought it was mostly oral and not that serious. I didn’t know it could show up genitally or be this severe. i never have shown any symptoms but I have had it since I was a children, I still told her I had it although I down play the severity, I feel the society has made this disease feel like is not a big deal. My girlfriend had a extreme outbreak from this, and it is my fault, for downplaying it, I am 25 and she is 22, neither of us knew what we where getting into, I feel for her.

She never said she was negative, and she still agreed to be intimate. She got tested 8 days after we were together and it came back negative — but now she’s showing symptoms, and it seems like that first test was just too early. So I’m pretty sure it was me who gave it to her.

I feel like absolute trash. If I had known HSV-1 could be passed like this, I would’ve ended things to protect her. Now, because of me, she might have this virus for life.

I know I was honest and she had a choice, but the guilt is eating me alive. How do you cope with something like this?