Informing People That Someone Has Herpes Free Dating, Singles and Personals

Informing People That Someone Has Herpes Posted: 8/2/2009 12:03:55 AM
I'm always amazed at how many times this conversation has taken place on POF (it seems like a gazillion times) and that same old misinformation still floats around, again and again and again. Herpes CAN be transmitted when you're not having an outbreak. Herpes is not the end of the world, but it certainly can put a huge dent in your love life, especially (as is evident from most postings here) because people treat you as if you had leprosy. 1 in 4 women have HSV2; 1 in 8 men have it. (As others have pointed out, up to 90% of the population eventually - viz. by the age of 70 - tests positive for HSV1.) This means, theoretically, that men give HSV2 to women at twice the rate that women give it to men, I'm sure mostly because of our different anatomies. Interestingly, I often wonder if the 1-in-8-men stats takes the gay population into account. I have a gay friend who said the gay community never even THINKS about HSV2 (because the consequences of HIV/AIDS have been waaaayyy more frightening), and that HSV2 is really common in the gay community. So if 1 in 8 men has HSV2 and about 1 in 8 men is gay (it's supposed to 10%-15% of the population), does that mean that less straight men have it than we might assume? And could that possibly mean that women transmit it at a lower rate than we think they do? Just wondering. If anyone on POF has any actual medical expertise on the subject (as opposed to the kind of mere opinion that seems rife around here), I'd be curious to hear your thoughts .