Question:
Sorry if I sound frustrated - but I am. I came to this board for help. But I feel like I'm invisible. Others ask questions and are answered, but my posts are ignored. So I'll ask one more time and then give up, I guess.

I'm very freaked out about viral shedding. It has been said that it comes without symptoms. This means, logically, that you never know when it is present.

So this leads me to think that if I'm with an uninfected partner (and I never sleep with anyone without telling them I'm infected - even if I use protection) I NEVER know if I may be infecting them - therefore I should always use protection.

So my main question is: do the rest of you do this (always use protection), or do you just inform your partner that there's always a slim chance that they'll be infected and take your chances?

Please please let's be honest about this - if we can't be honest on an anonymous board like this regarding such a grim disease, then where else....?

Thanks

Answer:
hi ... i am searching for answeres to my own questions and i stumbled upon your plea for help. I also have genital herpes and I am still in need of answeres. For the whole time I've had it, I never knoew about viral shedding - unti it was too late. I've been with a partner now for 4 months, and we've never had sexual intercourse. However, he still managed to contract genital herpes from me anyways. He knew that i had it in the first place, and that is why we sustained from going any further. We were both perplexed as to how he could have got it, so we did some research and we both think that it is because of viral shedding. I personally think that with herpes and spreading it to others, it is a lottery...sometimes people get it and sometimes not. I guess you'll just have to discuss the disease with your partner and also let them know how easily it can be spread. once you've told them everything there is to know, tell them to do their own research. Your partner has to make the decision on his own, and if he or she knows all there is to know, then it would be a more educated one.