Patient reflections

'Getting to know your herpes'

Jeannie May was diagnosed with genital herpes six years ago, and as many others, she struggled with the emotional issues more than the physical symptoms. In the process of 'coming to terms' with herpes, Jeannie became a 'peer support' provider, a spokesperson for the herpes community, an ardent herpes awareness campaigner and an author. Please click through to hear her testimonial.

Jeannie May’s website ‘Living Sphere’ is an information and support resource site for people living with the herpes virus. Key features of the site include real life stories, the Aussie HMate Peer Support Program, and downloadable resources.
www.livingsphere.com

Transcript
Jeanie May's Interview
25th October 2006

When I first found out I had genital herpes I was pretty devastated, I had been in a long term relationship and then I hadn’t dated for a long time. Then the first relationship I got into, six weeks into it all of a sudden I got an STI.

I was, I was pretty shocked I couldn’t believe that it had happened, I felt that it was really unfair and I was kind of angry when the guy kind of denied that there was any possibility that he had it.

I think the biggest challenge is a fear of telling people and their reaction, that people are terrified that no one will ever be able to love them again, that they will never have another relationship and this is just not true.

When I have told people because I always tell people up front and no one has ever had a problem with it, no one has ever said oh you have got herpes I don’t want to explore any possibility of a relationship with you, they have all been quite comfortable about it and wanted a little bit of information but never really impacted on their desire to have a relationship or possibly date me.

At first I was not aware that I had genital herpes because I had really bad fever and a lot of aches and pains for about two days I felt really ill and then genital herpes blisters appeared so I went straight to my doctor and got tested.

My GP did explain genital herpes to me but he did play it down casually saying it was pretty common but I was pretty shocked and devastated by it and I felt that that wasn’t enough for me so I went online and did a lot of research and read tones I just, just needed to know everything I could and when I found online support forums and actually read how other people who dealt with it that was really a changing point for me.

Well I’ve had genital herpes for over five years now so really rarely get an outbreak and when I do or when I feel one coming on I take anti viral medication until its gone and that’s it. For me it is usually triggered by stress so I try not to be too stressed.

Triggers for genital herpes are not the same for everyone for some people a major trigger can be stress for some people a trigger it can be food, some people have an outbreak every time they eat peanuts, you really have to get to know your own herpes, make friends with it, know what triggers it know what the signs are that an outbreak is coming on so the common triggers are stress, caffeine and peanuts.

There is no typical person that gets herpes it can affect anyone young or old, straight/gay whatever, I think a lot of people have genital symptoms and they are afraid to go to the doctor and find out what it is they have they would prefer to ignore it and not know exactly.

I think if there is something wrong go and get it checked out, so you know.