Question:
Hello, I am new here and this is a place I NEVER thought I would be writing. I am almost 38 years old and have only been with one man in my entire life, my husband. We have been married for over 13 years and I thought this year has been the best year of our marriage ever, but for about a month I have been in pain and itching with sores. I finally swallowed my pride and faced the shame of going to a gynecologist for the first time in my life. Just sitting in the waiting room to see him made my stomach sick. Anyway, the result was he suspects I have herpes. He did a test but I will not get the results back until Saturday. Thus, after seeing him I started reading about herpes (something I had never concerned myself with since I thought STD`s would never effect my life) the symptoms and pictures seem to point to herpes. So I am prepared for the worst because I instinctually felt even before I went to the doctor that what ever I had was not just a regular yeast infection. However, I have a question and hope someone can accurately answer it for me. Obviously this did not come from me so all I can conclude is it must have come from my husband. My husband had been married before so is it possible that he got this from his previous marriage, carried it all these years with no symptoms, and just now after over 13 years of our marriage, I caught it? If anyone knows, I would really feel comforted to hear your response. Thank you.

Answer:
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Answer:
ive had HSV for almost a year now, been doing alot of reading about this stuff and yes there can be no signs or symptoms and still pass it on. it sucks but it happens no matter how long the virus can stay dormant it is still active and can still spread. There was a man i read about and he didn't have any outbreaks (OB's) for 18 years and still gave it to his wife. its rare but it does happen. take care and dont lose hope....it will get better:)

Answer:
Thank you for your responses. I have another question. Do you think my husband could have been born with this or do you think he got it from his previous marriage? I asked my husband if his previous wife had any STD`s and he said that she only had a bad yeast infection which he caught but that is all.

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Oh, I have another question. I have 2 children and since this can lay dormant for years is it possible that my children have it too? Thank you.

Answer:
Herpes can be confused for a yeast infection. Maybe his x-wife didnt know she had it either.....and ive never heard of a yeast infection being passed on to a male, so it very well could have been the herpes virus. unless you gave birth to your children vaginaly and knew you were hsv+ then yes but if no then not likely.

Answer:
I had a blood test both times I was pregnant, wouldn`t the blood test have shown that I had this or does one have to have an outbreak before it would show up in the blood test?

Answer:
Unfortunately, they don't always test for HSV when they do blood tests. If you had HSV, yes it would have shown up. But considering 70% of the population (or so) have HSV in the form of cold sores, most doctors don't test for it. If your children had had HSV when they were born, you would have known. There's little chance your husband was "born with it", but it is possible he got it early from his mother if she had cold sores, or from his ex wife (the situation you're talking about sounds most likely to have been an HSV outbreak rather than a yeast infection, and HSV is often misdiagnosed as yeast). Sounds to me like your husband got it from his ex wife and was asymptomatic. The virus spreads most easily through direct contact with a sore, but since your husband never had any sores (at least not while he was with you), you've dodged the viral shedding bullet for 13 years and have now caught it.

However, we can conjecture about how you got it all day. The important thing is that you have it, and what you'll do from here. It sounds like your relationship with your husband is monogamous, which is fabulous. You might still consider having him tested, because if by some miracle he doesn't have HSV, you'll need to help protect him from getting it.

Read some of the articles around here to see how the virus is spread (because even if he does have it, you don't want to spread it to another part of his body or your body by accident), and let us know how it goes.

Answer:
Thank you Catiesmom for your response. I went back and looked at my blood test results from when I was pregnant with my last child and you are right that I was not tested for Herpes. Second, I have been reading some more and I found out for my children to have been born with herpes, I would have had to have had an open sore and given birth vaginally at the same time, which I did not so they must be safe as you also indicated. Finally, if the test comes back as positive, I know I had to have gotten this from my husband because I have never been with another man, and he has only been with one other woman, his previous wife. So I agree that the "yeast infection" must have been herpes, if that is indeed what I have. His previous wife said she was "wild" in high school which I can only guess would mean promiscuous so if I have it, I think I know where it can be traced back to, and since I am with my husband "till death do us part", I am not at any risk of spreading it to others so what I plan to do with it is just make some adjustments in the intimate areas of my marriage life as need be, but other than that continue on with life as usual. The other thing I am going to do is to tell my children to be very careful with anyone that has ever been with any other person before deciding on starting a relationship with them because I thought I was safe, but obviously I was not. Anyway, life goes on whatever the results may be, but I will let you know when I get the results back if I really have it or not.