Everyone has herpes*
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Why is herpes still such a stigmatized STI despite being so common?
This is an ABC podcast.
It is Pippin D and I
really
want to talk about herpes.
Me too. It's definitely something I've been seeing a lot more of online, particularly in my TikTok feed. A lot of people talking about it openly, being advocates. It's really cool to see this kind of change happen.
I have I told you this before, and this was one of the reasons why we decided to do Herpes As this episode. I've recently had a few friends get it, and just seeing how upset they were, and it was almost like their self-confidence when it came to like sex and dating was completely shattered. And it's really hard when you hear someone who you genuinely love so much, hearing them so upset, knowing that it's over. something that is just so common and everyone pretty much has it. So it's like so stigma it just shows how stigmatized this still is and this is like one of the biggest things. Yeah, and that's what we're gonna get into in this episode. We really want to smash the stigma around herpes and tell everyone who's ever had a herpes scare or have been properly diagnosed that it's not the end of the world.
It's actually just a really mild STI that, yeah, most people have and you can still have amazing sex and have a really happy and healthy dating life.
Yeah, so you're gonna hear from people who've had it. You're gonna get a full medical rundown on how herpes is passed around, what it feels and looks like, and of course how to treat it. And you're
gonna find out how to have that conversation with a partner, whether you're in a relationship or you're just dating.
So, Dee, like I said before, there have been more and more advocates popping up on my TikTok feed. The algorithm is serving me these amazing people who are speaking up about having herpes. And one of these people is Suze. She is massive on TikTok. Her handle is at SuzeBubs. That's spelled S-U-Z-B-U-B-S. And she's known for being really open about her own herpes and the journey she's had with her diagnosis. And everyone's reactions. So to give you some context
On how she got it. Suze was dating her college sweetheart.
How do personal experiences of friends and partners illustrate the emotional impact of a herpes diagnosis?
They married, but then after a couple of years, their relationship started to uh feel a little bit stale, so they decided to open things up. And she started chatting with a guy she'd met at a bar, and it developed into a long-distance relationship. She and her then-husband split. It was an amicable divorce, and then she pursued this relationship further with this guy. and that's when she contracted herpes. I spoke to her a couple of days ago on Zoom and yeah, start off by asking her what her initial reaction was when she found out.
Yeah. So honestly, my first thought was, Oh my gosh, he's gonna leave me. Like he's he's gonna reject me for this now. And once we started talking about it, he was, you know, he admitted a few weeks later he was having a flare up and then It was very much like, we don't know who it came from. So let's just not dwell on it. Like, you know, and anytime I tried to talk to him about because back then I wasn't as educated on on how it transmits. And I was asking, like, you know, was there anyone that you had been with that you didn't tell me about or like before we were exclusive that might have had it, you know, and he would just get so uncomfortable when it came up. When I had it, I just felt stupid. I felt like I had been irresponsible.
I felt like I was being punished. I was in a really dark place for a while, actually. Like in from my initial diagnosis, the first few weeks, I was pretty depressed. I was I was having like passively suicidal thoughts. Um, just about how hard life was gonna be with this, how I couldn't imagine dating with this beyond the person I was currently with. So I have no doubt that it contributed to me like staying with him because At that point it was easier, you know. I was in love for sure, but It was terrifying to imagine um being single, you know, and and dating with it. So it hit me really hard, like it does a lot of people.
So Sue started talking about her herpiece online on Instagram and on TikTok, and that's how she went super viral.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Why is herpes still such a stigmatized STI despite being so common?
0:02–2:18
2
How do personal experiences of friends and partners illustrate the emotional impact of a herpes diagnosis?
2:18–8:53
3
Who is SuzeBubs and what can we learn from her story about contracting and coping with herpes?
8:53–19:03
4
What are the medical basics of HSV‑1 and HSV‑2, including symptoms and where the viruses can appear?
19:03–28:18
5
How is herpes transmitted – through skin‑to‑skin contact, oral sex, toys, and other routes?
28:18–34:12