r/Herpes•
wandering41816

Partner less accepting over time?

Relationships

I, 40F, was diagnosed with hsv2 three years ago and discovered my long-term boyfriend had been cheating on me. I only recently began trying to date again. I've been in a relationship with 39M for 5 months now. I disclosed after a few weeks and he told me he isn't going anywhere but he did ask if I would start suppressive meds, which I did. He's been really busy with work lately so I tried not to think too deeply about the fact that over the last couple of months he seems to have pulled back in some regards. For example, we used to talk about having a baby (very early on, yes) and he no longer initiates on that topic. He also used to be ok with having sex without a condom now and then but lately he's been much more militant about using one. The change has made me question myself and worry. This past weekend we did it without a condom again after he had been drinking. He made a comment about how we shouldn't have done that, and I asked him if it was about the virus issue. To which he responded "it's a DISEASE", not a virus, "it's not as common as you said it is", "you get it by sleeping around a lot", etc. I got upset and he doubled down saying he's just saying straight facts. I almost left but he stopped me and claimed he wasn't calling me a slut but he said my ex had been the one sleeping around so he still wasn't wrong about it being a disease of sleeping around too much, and he then said that I chose this person (my ex). I kept repeating that I didn't know and imagine how I felt. He clearly is not as ok with my diagnosis as he originally made it seem, and now I'm feeling unsafe/ like he's about to leave any minute. Has anyone else experienced this? It also is tied to one of my greater fears of being unlovable in general once someone gets to know me, so it's very triggering. I'm not sure if I should bring it up again? Or should I ask him why he stopped talking about babies, or leave him just to save him from ever catching this, or let things be and let him leave himself if that is where he's headed. He had a mild short-lived rash a couple of months ago and keeps saying maybe he has hsv2 now, from me. He insists there's no way he had it before. My theory/fear is the rash made the risk more real for him and when confronted with that reality, he realized he can't/ doesn't want to deal with it. He's going to the doctor this week so maybe he'll get tested. I fear that he is waiting for a negative test to break up with me. Otherwise, if positive, maybe he'll stay. But maybe I'm leaping to conclusions.

Posted Aug 3, 2026, 10:44 AM UTC

325
Loading comments…