POLL : Do you have herpes?

They say that 1 in 5 people have herpes. I’ve never had an outbreak, but I’ve never been tested.

Apparently 80% of those carrying the virus never have any symptoms.

Thought it might be an interesting poll!

You should put no I do not have herpes as an answer.

Obviously, I considered that, but how can you really know that you don’t have it? The tests are not 100% accurate, and being asymptomatic doesn’t mean anything, except that you may or may not have it.

Chicken Pox is a form of herpes.

man i dont have no damn herpes lol. i have never even had a coldsore.

Chicken pox is Herpes I(1) I believe he is referring to Herpes II(2). Strep throat is also Herpes I(1).

I don’t think so. Herpes is a virus . Strep is a bacteria . I know too much about strep, and probably don’t respect herpes as much as I should.

Funny thing that. My GF actually had what they think was a herpes outbreak. It only happened once, but they thought that it was definitely herpes. She was a virgin when she met me, and the only girl I’ve had unprotected sex with is her. I have no history of cold sores or outbreaks. The closest thing they think could’ve happened is that her mother, who gets cold sores, somehow passed it to her when she was young, and that’s pretty far fetched. For a while we didn’t do anything that didn’t involve a condom. It was pretty scary. If I do have it, it’s extremely dormant and has never surfaced, which is also very unlikely given my level of protection in the past. Hell, there’s still a chance that it was completely misdiagnosed, although Valtrex made it go away and somewhat debunks that theory.

When she called me I knew that she had been to the doctor that day, and I initially thought that she was pregnant. It’s amazing how your life flashes before your eyes when that happens.

That aside, barring further evidence I will have to respond with never having had an outbreak.

Of course I don’t mean chicken pox. I mean HSV 1 and 2.

Sure, we animals carry around untold legions of bacteria, virii and other parasites/diseases, mostly without ever realising it.

As far as I know, though, there is nothing foreign inside me (never had any symptoms of any disease aside from the usual childhood chickenpox, german measles, tonsilitis, common cold and such). But of course to really believe that I am sterile inside would be foolish. Who knows what lurks beneath?!

I voted no, I don’t remember… I`m not sure about the oral one. But the sexual one, hell no.

I’ve definitely had cold sores when I was a teen, but I haven’t had more then a few cold sores in the last 20 years.

I had oral cold sores when I was a teenager as well. I had them years before I had sex, I didn’t realize they were herpes.

Well, this is interesting so far - obviously this is not a representation of the general population, but no one has had a genital outbreak. The stats for oral herpes seem more in line - about 1 in 6. We could assume that the members of Thunder’s Place are above average in terms of factors such as intelligence and economic status - hell, we all have computers, use the internet frequently and have enough spare time to devote a fair amount of it to a bizarre hobby.

Maybe people with genital herpes may have been afraid to reply to this poll, however.

Considering condoms don’t offer much in the way of protection against genital herpes, it’s good to know that if one restricts oneself to the upper echelons of sexual partners, the risk may be significantly lower than that indicated by the general statistics.

A word of advice : it has been said that your best protection against this disease is to be aware - if it’s the first time with someone, CHECK to see that they have no visible signs of disease (sores, bumps, secretions, unusual odors). None of this “lights out” business. With that in mind, performing oral sex, even if unprotected, is safer than not doing so, because you get to have a close up look to make sure everything is in order before continuing.

I was recently tested for STDs and while I don’t have the dreaded HV2, it turns out I do have HV1, the above the waist kind. I guess even though I haven’t had a cold sore in years and years, the virus is still there. Who knew?