Female, 31 years old. Single, sporadically sexually active. I just started dating again.
I was diagnosed with Herpes Simplex 1 on my genitals a month ago after sleeping with someone who claimed they were safe. Obviously it’s my fault because we didn’t use protection and I was fully aware we should have.
I’ve had two outbreaks since then. The first was bad. The second less so.
I feel traumatised. I’ve been doing a lot of research but I’m still really unclear on a lot of things. Like, apparently people can’t go down on me without a dental dam? Some sites say lots of people don’t care about dating someone with genital herpes, other people say they’ve been dumped by partners for having it.
If you’ve been in this situation could you please share your experience with me? I’m feeling in a pretty dark place at the moment. Like, really dark. Very depressed about it. I feel like men won’t look at me the same anymore. I was super ignorant myself about it before I got diagnosed.