On 2/14/04, 11:27pm CST, toccaralynn wrote:

Not very likely. Unless you don't consider oral sex, as sex. Herpes is
transfered by skin to skin contact and sex is the most likely reason
for that whether it be genital sex or oral sex.

On 2/14/04, 11:24pm CST, toccaralynn wrote:

Famvir is a very safe and effective antiviral drug that is used to
treat herpes types 1&2.  Depression is not one of its side effects as
far as I know. However, if your friend truly believes she'll not have
sex or get married in the future, that may be the reason for her
depression. That would be enough to depress anybody, whether they had
herpes or not!  But to allow herpes to have such an effect on her
future is simply unrealistic. There are to many ways to reduce the
risk of transfer to allow herp to be a hurdle these days. And if your
friend is newly diagnosed, tell her that once she learns the facts
about the virus, she'll find it's not so difficult to deal with
afterall. Herpes is one of those conditions that is treatable, but
even if you don't treat it, it gets better on its own over time. And
it doesn't cause any other diseases, and it's not as highly contageous
as some would have you believe. Meaning, it's not airborne like cold
and flu virus, and the virus doesn't live on inantimate objects like
counter tops, doorknobs or toilet seats. Skin to skin contact is its
method of transfer. So unless she's very intimate with someone else
when the virus is shedding, she's not likely to spread it around. And
even being intimate is not guaranteed to spread it. Like I said, there
are a number of ways to reduce the risk to a partner. And never having
sex or not getting married are not things she should expect in her
future.

M2

A lot of herpes infected feel this way.  It's really too bad because it is a
totally false belief.  I would suggest she see a therapist to work through
this.

ar