u/RealAd8941
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38399571/
Only 3.8% of pregnant women in Croatia have HSV-2. And pregnant women are much more likely to have HSV-2 than the general population.
I just don't understand how we got so unlucky. 70% had HSV-1 why is it so rare for type 2?
At the end of the day, the problem seems to be people with HSV-2 not disclosing, infecting responsible people and hiding behind medical privacy laws to gaslight their victims
People with public HSV-2 status could date each other and clean people could lookup someone's HSV-2 status before hooking up to ensure they use a condom so they will be protected
I know people will say this will cause people not to test or go to underground STD clinics but it could also cause greater awareness of HSV-2 and people would start demanding HSV-2 tests of their partners
Reading reddit threads about people GHSV-1 being comforted about how at least you don't have HSV-2 the "rare bad one". At least you're not one of "those people"., About how the symptoms are so much milder, how much less contagious it is, how there is so much less stigma, how it's so much more common than HSV-2.
It's so frustrating knowing how similar these viruses supposedly are, how I was so close to just being able to life a normal life if it was a 1 instead of a 2.
The askmen threads about "Would you date a woman with HSV-2" everyone says they would never but when it's GHSV-1 they all have no problem with it since its the "cold sore" virus. The difference in tone whether its HSV-1 vs. H
It makes sense why they don't test for HSV-1 since it's common and the vast majority have zero symptoms
But why not HSV-2? Only a small percent of the population has that. The antibody tests are way more accurate for HSV-2 than HSV-1. And type 2 is way more medically severe than HSV-1
They routinely test people for Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, HPV in women, etc. which are all much more common than HSV-2
The reason they say they don't have herpes on the standard STD panel is because it's so common and the tests are not accurate but that is only true for HSV-1
The studies show that genital HSV-1 has much milder symptoms and a lot less contagious
Also HSV-1 is a lot more common and less stigmatized since it is mostly spread non-sexually or through oral sex. It's the "cold sore" virus and it's not considered an STD. Most people have HSV-1 and it's pretty much inevitable to get it at some point whereas HSV-2 is almost always spread through intercourse and is an STD
Just knowing a tiny piece of plastic could have saved us from all this insanity is so frustrating
When I got infected, my gifter wore a condom for 90% of the interaction but he stealthed me at the very end
I wonder how the "no big deal" crowd can explain this. How can something be "not a big deal" when it leads to serious prison time and destroying their entire future?
I also wonder if this leads to a slippery slope where people who actually did disclose get punished since it's just a "he said she said" situation where they can just claim you didn't disclose.
Australia is the country that literally decriminalized STD's yet even the courts recog
Supposedly there are billions of people worldwide who have herpes
There are basically only 2 forums on the entire internet for herpes (this and HSVPositive) other than the tiny one by Terri Warren which is paid
HSVPositive only has 28k members while this one has 50k (larger since people without herpes can post here too) and there are only a few new posts per day on each on them.
Even if most people with herpes don't know they have it or if you only include those with genital herpes since oral herpes don't care as much, that is still an insanely small amount of online activity about it. There are rarely any news or scientific articles about it either
The consensus on this forum seems to be that HSV-2 is worse than HIV because of the meds that make HIV people undetectable and have no symptoms
But what about the advanced stage of HIV where it becomes AIDS. Would you rather have that or HSV-2? The vast majority of people with AIDS recover normally after starting treatment but the risks are higher than just HIV
Both the CDC and WHO agree that 90% of people don't have HSV-2
It seems like only the most risky, promiscuous 10% of the population who constantly sleeps around with strangers unprotected has HSV-2 and we got tricked by them since they didn't disclose and lied to us. They probably get a kick out of infecting innocent people, it's disgusting
There are a lot of posters here who say their doctors told them HSV-2 is extremely common in the population (1 in 3 or 1 in 4 having it) but the CDC and WHO numbers are very low.
CDC says only11.9% of Americans have it and WHO says only 13% has it which is way lower than the numbers the doctors are allegedly quoting to these people
There is almost no stigma against HSV-1 compared to HSV-2. And getting HSV-1 is basically inevitable considering that 65-90% of adults have it
HSV-1 generally have the privilege of not having any outbreaks or symptoms (other than the initial one), its literally the same as not having it after that
HSV-2 is very rare compared to HSV-1 and has way worse outbreaks, symptoms, and stigma. It's also way more likely to spread.
HSV-2 have infinitely less privilege than HSV-1
It's honestly not much different than a millionaire complaining they are not a billionaire to people living in slums
There are studies showing 25-50% of gay men have HSV-2
But according to the CDC, only 11.9% of Americans had HSV-2 in 2015. The number is probably a lot lower now since percent has been consistently falling fast year after year, it used to be 22% in 1994.
It's strange since even the percent of people who have HIV is not dropping at all
Women are much more likely to be infected so why is it relatively common among MSM but so rare in the general population and seems to be dropping fast?
Is your biggest regret in life that you didn't use a condom the night you caught HSV-2?
When you ask older people what their biggest regret in life is, the answer is usually something way less of a big deal than getting herpes (e.g. working too much, Married the wrong person, lost touch with friends, etc.) All those things are very easy to fix whereas HSV-2 is permanent and nothing can be done about it
It seems there is nothing more dangerous in life than hooking up without a condom because of HSV-2. Most of the other regrets in life are easily fixable
Even the most reckless people who made horrible choices never were dumb enough to hookup without a condom due to the fear of herpes, that
Is the biggest regret in your life was that you didn't put a condom on the night you caught it?
When I talk to older people about what the biggest mistake of their life is, it's usually something way less of a big deal that not using a condom during a hookup (e.g. working too much, losing touch with friends, marrying the wrong person, etc.). All of those things are easily fixable unlike HSV-2 which is permanent.
There is nothing more risky in life than not using a condom during a hookup. The "biggest regrets" of others are extremely trivial compared to people who caught HSV-2
Even the most reckless and worst decision makers were not as stupid enough to not use a condom during a hookup an