I'm kind of amazed I've managed to dodge it so far. I know the risk of infection is primarily during breakouts but statistically speaking I MUST have had some partners that I've kissed that had it.

I make sure my partners are tested prior to sex but not for kissing. Does anyone do that?

[–] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How do you know you don't have it? Tests are barely even able to detect it, with a high false negative rate. There's a reason it's not part of the standard testing regiment

[–] Yoga@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Specifically asked for it on a STD panel.

Entirely possible they didn't do anything special and I've just gotten a false negative on the 10+ that I've done.

[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

The blood tests are extremely unreliable. And I don't say this to say "Yeah you have it dummy", just that you really can't know for sure and IT DOESN'T MATTER because almost everyone has it anyway. Watch videos on youtube by doctors addressing herpes and you'll see that they just don't see it has a big deal because it's so common. Most don't even think you should do blood tests because they're basically worthless, and that's why they aren't included in a standard STD panel.

I recently had to learn all about it after a potential partner disclosed, and I found this British doctor's youtube channel to be incredibly straightforward and informative:

https://www.youtube.com/@DrBretPalmer