Pearl - May 28, 2025


STD's At An ALL TIME HIGH And Some Women Don't EVEN CARE! | Pearl Reacts


Episode Stats

Length

28 minutes

Words per Minute

169.88702

Word Count

4,912

Sentence Count

436

Misogynist Sentences

32

Hate Speech Sentences

14


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we talk about herpes and how it affects modern women, and the stigma around it. We also talk about how herpes can have a negative impact on a woman's ability to give birth, and how to deal with it.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.080 Modern women talk about sexual liberation and being able to have the same sexual experience as
00:00:05.600 a man. The only problem is that women are at a much greater risk of contracting an STI than men.
00:00:12.240 One of the most common STIs on the rise when it comes to modern women is, you guessed it, herpes.
00:00:19.680 There are more than half a million new cases of people in the U.S. contracting genital herpes,
00:00:25.200 with 61% of those cases being women. Officially, one in five women have genital herpes, so let's take a
00:00:32.800 look at some of these women. My other question is, because we're going to predict, these are the women
00:00:38.160 publicly saying they have herpes, what percent of hot women have herpes? I have herpes. If I want to
00:00:44.560 have unprotected sex, I have to tell them. I don't know how this is going to affect my dating life.
00:00:50.160 Yeah. I've interviewed people that have herpes. I've interviewed both men and women. I think
00:00:58.160 people should know out there, and this isn't good or bad. Oh, sorry. This isn't a good thing,
00:01:04.640 but I can't change the way the world is. Most are not going to tell you. Look, I've interviewed men
00:01:16.000 that have it. Out of the three that I interviewed, two said that they don't care. They don't use
00:01:25.040 protection. They do not care. If the girl chooses to not wear a condom, that's on her. That's how they
00:01:32.240 feel. The one tells them, and he hasn't had sex in years. These are the choices. When people get this
00:01:40.000 STD, their choice is to be sexless or to lie. I'm just letting you guys know to be careful out there
00:01:51.360 because there's a lot of incentive to lie and do the wrong thing here. I'm not saying it's good,
00:01:59.840 right? It's bad, but just is what it is. I can't give birth vaginally if I have an outbreak. I don't
00:02:07.920 fucking know how I'm supposed to tell my parents this. It's also just fucking painful. Okay. Now
00:02:13.440 I'm confused. Why are you telling TikTok and not your parents? And I'm going to have these outbreaks
00:02:20.480 for the rest of my life. It was 1983. I was 20 years old, and I had my first herpes outbreak.
00:02:28.240 To this day, it was one of the most excruciatingly painful experiences I have ever had. All I could do
00:02:36.400 was sit around in a beanbag chair with no underwear on, and when I peed, I'd have to pee through a
00:02:43.840 cardboard tube and dry myself with the hairdryer. It was so painful. And I was pregnant, so I was
00:02:52.480 peeing a lot. Again, this was in the 1980s, and AIDS wasn't even a twinkle in sexually transmitted
00:03:00.320 diseases eye. So it was like literally the worst STD that you could get. And as you know, that
00:03:07.520 shit stays with you for life. There was so much stigma. I forgot what percent get it by 50.
00:03:15.360 It's pretty high though. If you're in the dating market too long, you might get herpes. I won't
00:03:21.840 lie to you guys. Around herpes. You know what else is interesting? They say that women are more likely
00:03:27.280 to get it, but women are more likely to get it because women are fucking more. I'm sure it's like
00:03:33.440 easier for women to get STDs too, but can we just, let's be honest about this. Women are sleeping
00:03:39.120 around more than men. And because I had such a severe breakout, I couldn't go to work. And I
00:03:44.960 trusted my boss when I gave him the information about why I was staying home. And he told everybody
00:03:51.520 that I worked with. Everybody. And I worked with some old biddies who were extremely cruel and very
00:03:58.800 uninformed and didn't want to use the same bathroom as me. I was also very concerned that I would not
00:04:07.280 be able to have a vaginal birth. But when the time came and they cultured me while I was in labor,
00:04:14.640 it was negative. I did end up having a C-section anyway because of other issues that were going on,
00:04:20.640 but it had nothing to do with my herpes. In fact, I've never had a breakout impact any of the births of my
00:04:27.520 three babies. What I can tell you is this. While it sucks, the first breakout is the worst,
00:04:34.400 and they will improve over time. And acyclovir is an amazing, amazing drug that we did not.
00:04:40.320 Yeah. And this is the thing. Men always bail us out a bad decision. So now
00:04:44.240 the women are getting STDs and then cure them or essentially cure them, right? And I looked it up.
00:04:50.640 You only have to legally tell people if you have HIV. Herpes, you can just spread like a mother,
00:05:02.000 unfortunately, guys. So be careful out there. I'm telling you, I know a different guy. He went on a
00:05:08.880 date with a girl and she told him. And he basically told her, yeah, I can't date you. And because of him,
00:05:15.120 he said, you know, if you lied, like we probably would have dated. Guess what she did with the next
00:05:21.280 guy. She's engaged. He doesn't know all the time. You could be in a relationship and not know.
00:05:30.720 It's disgusting out there. I can't, I didn't make this market. Do you know what I mean? I didn't.
00:05:36.400 And people call me a doomer. I'm like, well, the blue eyed, blonde haired college girls are
00:05:44.880 catching literal herpes. I have back in those days and it works that fast to clear it up.
00:05:51.600 40 years later, I rarely, rarely have a breakout. And when I do, it's nothing. It's just nothing.
00:05:59.680 Herpes is really common. It's way more common than most people think. I probably know more women
00:06:06.080 who do have it than don't have it. You are not a bad person just because you have herpes. And if
00:06:12.400 you're worried about what your parents are going to think, don't tell them. It's not their business.
00:06:16.960 The physical and emotional suffering that you're experiencing right now will get better.
00:06:22.240 And this is the thing. We have this revenge fantasy, like, like this, these decisions will
00:06:28.000 catch up to women. They don't, they don't. I'm telling you, this, this girl, right. That's crying here.
00:06:37.040 Some guy is still gonna do it. Have these outbreaks for the rest of my life.
00:06:43.840 And she's gonna turn into this girl who's married with kids. Yep.
00:06:51.440 This woman had three kids with herpes. Someone did it.
00:06:56.880 Let me see the comments on here.
00:06:58.400 Newly diagnosed here. I'm learning to embrace it. I have so much anxiety every time I think about it.
00:07:08.320 Thank you for the comforting information. Let's see what this girl looks like.
00:07:12.160 Oh, okay. She is not overly attractive.
00:07:20.320 Oh, see, she's a mother. Let's see who else has it in the comments.
00:07:24.080 I didn't really tell on themselves in the comments.
00:07:26.160 Um, let's see the pup named Dior.
00:07:35.120 See this girl married.
00:07:38.720 She said, I forget I had it.
00:07:39.920 There you go.
00:07:44.960 Yeah.
00:07:47.280 They'll be fine.
00:07:49.040 And a lot of, a lot of people are like, oh, pearl, coke, coke, coke.
00:07:52.880 Um, no.
00:08:00.000 I'm currently waiting on lab results, but have currently having my first outbreak.
00:08:03.840 You know, it's crazy that the guys told me some of the women that they told they had it
00:08:09.520 still slept with them.
00:08:13.440 I was like, okay, let's see. I just want to see how attractive the women are that we
00:08:18.400 that have it. Um, so this is another one with it.
00:08:23.840 Um, yeah, see, you would see her at a club, right? You would think she was cute. You probably all would.
00:08:32.000 Six, I'd say. Six, yeah. Herpes thin. She's in LA.
00:08:38.960 I have herpes.
00:08:40.480 Okay, let's see who else. Who else is in the comments?
00:08:45.440 This girl said, I hope you're not going to lose sleep.
00:08:48.320 My doctor said, I hope you're not going to lose sleep over this because it's so common.
00:08:52.880 Um, I'm seeing this mostly with some sixes.
00:09:00.800 Fives, that's what I'm seeing. Let's see.
00:09:04.400 Let's see who else is in these comments section.
00:09:07.520 This girl, 10 years later, the first one was so hard back-to-back outbreaks, but I barely notice it
00:09:14.000 anymore. This is the look.
00:09:16.000 And people, I mean, most of these women just look like normal. They don't look like a lot of guys
00:09:26.160 will say, oh, you can tell. Could you? Really?
00:09:29.360 To anyone who is feeling like this, this happens to me as well. I am not married to a man who didn't
00:09:35.200 care at all. There is much hope. I barely have outbreaks. Yeah, that's what I've seen
00:09:41.280 in the people I interviewed. I guess it's really bad. It gets less bad over time. Your body learns to
00:09:46.240 fight it. Ugh, I have outbreaks, but mine happen on and around my lips. It's terrible.
00:09:52.880 I'm sorry. Okay, would you guys be able to tell?
00:10:00.720 I came here to- There you go, fellas. All right, let's see what's next. All right, let's see who's
00:10:07.120 got it next. You guys would be able to tell? Really? You could tell the difference?
00:10:15.120 That's why I was in a space, and there was a guy in the space talking about how he dated
00:10:19.840 a woman who they were about to hook up, and she told them, and there was another girl in the space,
00:10:25.840 well, you just date thoughts, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Yeah, like you could-
00:10:31.840 Like, I'm sure I like to show the faces because
00:10:37.440 you're not going to know. Does this woman you'd be able to tell, really?
00:10:41.040 I have herpes. I have herpes. You heard me right. And I'm simply done allowing that statement to
00:10:48.560 cultivate shame for me anymore. I'm done. I contracted herpes when I was 19 years old. I am 28.
00:10:55.120 And I spent almost 10 years carrying around this heavy, heavy load of shame surrounding the fact
00:11:03.360 that I have HSV. I contracted herpes from a man that I trusted. I thought we were dating. Obviously,
00:11:10.240 my standards were very low back then. And I had asked him-
00:11:12.880 Wear a condom always, even with your boyfriend, girlfriend. I'm telling you guys.
00:11:19.440 I'm telling- It's a calculated risk, right? I'm not going to say do or don't. It's your sex lives.
00:11:26.320 But if you're living together, okay, you're kind of more guaranteed. But out of the three that I
00:11:33.120 interviewed that had it, one got it with a condom. It's something that could happen
00:11:44.160 to anybody. And you could see that with the difference in women that I'm showing on here.
00:11:49.680 The guys that I interviewed with it, three different races. I wouldn't have known. The women
00:11:56.960 that I interviewed, most of, most of, because men are more honest. So I found more men. It's interesting.
00:12:04.160 There's more women talking about this on the internet. But when I was trying to find people
00:12:08.880 like personally to interview or like just on Twitter telling them to call, you know, whatever.
00:12:15.200 Um, I found more men willing to talk about it. If he had been tested, but I never verified any test
00:12:25.840 results. And I want to also add that while I take accountability for the fact that I should have
00:12:29.840 verified the test results at 19 years old, I was extremely naive. I was raised in a very fundamental
00:12:35.520 Christian household where I received zero sex education. The extent of blah, blah, blah. The internet
00:12:40.960 is available. We all like, can we? I think sex ed is weird for adults to be teaching children.
00:12:54.400 But at some point, you got to be accountable. The internet's available. You can Google this stuff.
00:13:01.920 Yeah, the sex education that I received was one time my mom sitting me down and saying,
00:13:06.640 hey, Lana, we need to talk about the birds and the bees. And I got really embarrassed. And I was like,
00:13:10.640 oh, I already know. And she said, okay. And walked out of the room. That was it.
00:13:14.960 I was pulled from sex ed in school. So my education surrounding sexual health was extremely limited.
00:13:22.640 And also the way that I viewed myself in relation to men at that point was already very skewed. So
00:13:28.320 I didn't question him at all when he said, yeah, I'm tested and I'm clean.
00:13:32.640 Finding out that I had herpes was easily one of the most devastating days of my entire life. I can't
00:13:37.040 even explain the feeling of defeat and helplessness that you feel when you know that you have a virus
00:13:43.200 that is going to impact the rest of your life and the way that you engage with men.
00:13:49.040 For so long, it really made me feel like I wasn't even worthy and I couldn't attract a quality partner.
00:13:55.040 And I was, yeah, I mean, it definitely takes your dating pool market way down unless you lie.
00:14:03.920 And that's why I try to really emphasize, I really try to stress that because I'm telling you guys,
00:14:11.440 people with it, their choice is to tell this very personal information on like a first or second date,
00:14:19.440 right? Or their choice is to lie. Most of them, most of them lie. I had a, I had a different friend. He
00:14:32.000 went on a date with a girl who told them second date and he was kind of mean to her, right? I mean,
00:14:37.120 he was like, Oh, that's disgusting. And I told him, I'm like, look, you are lucky. She was honest.
00:14:43.360 You are lucky that she was honest because most of them lie. You got very, very, I mean,
00:14:52.480 he was probably fine, but I can understand his reaction. It is gross, but I'm telling you,
00:15:00.800 I've done these interviews. They're lying. A lot of them. So much seeking acceptance that I would
00:15:06.880 literally date any man that would accept me as soon as I had, you know, told him that I had the virus.
00:15:11.760 I did not tell my friends for almost a decade. The only person that knew outside the men that I slept
00:15:17.680 with were, was my sister. Yeah. And that's the other thing, these people with it, they have to
00:15:22.560 run the risk that you're going to tell other people. And most of them, I mean, my friend told
00:15:27.600 me about his date. So now their reputation's on the line. What's the incentive? I don't,
00:15:35.280 I don't try to do right or wrong. I try to say, what's the incentive here? Now there's an incentive
00:15:40.400 for these women to go on the internet because they get attention. They get to not feel alone
00:15:44.160 and they could build a herpes brand. So. And the partners that I chose post herpes diagnosis were
00:15:50.640 very low caliber, very low quality. My, my sense of self-worth had dropped so low because of the
00:15:55.840 fact that I had herpes. It was already low to begin with. Let me be clear, but getting contracting herpes
00:16:01.120 made it substantially worse. And the partners I then dated throughout my twenties,
00:16:06.480 rock bottom. My standards were, they were in hell. And I recently have been going through
00:16:12.720 a big journey of really just trying to take ownership of anything that brings me shame.
00:16:16.320 And this is one thing that I knew I couldn't avoid talking about. I truly thought that I would take
00:16:21.680 this information to my grave. I hid this so deeply from my friends that even when I would travel with
00:16:26.080 girlfriends, I would put the medication in a separate bottle because I didn't want anybody to see
00:16:30.480 the antibodies like medication bottle in my bag, but I just ain't doing that anymore. I have herpes.
00:16:36.720 It's a part of who I am. It does not change my value, my worth. It does significantly actually in
00:16:43.200 the dating marketplace. I'm not saying you're not a nice person, but in the dating marketplace, much lower,
00:16:50.400 much lower. It is simply a virus that I contracted that I now have in my body. It's very dormant.
00:16:56.880 I haven't had an outbreak in years. Really the only way it impacts my life now is the fact that I have
00:17:01.200 to tell partners. I have to disclose it. And I recently started dating somebody new and I realized
00:17:07.440 I'm still getting tripped up having the disclosure conversation. So I decided I'm just going to take
00:17:12.480 ownership of it. I released a podcast episode telling the whole world that I have herpes and now
00:17:15.760 I'm here telling you, if you have herpes, you are not alone. You are not less worthy.
00:17:20.800 You are, but I mean, let's see. I met a girl and on her second date, she told me she had it. I was able
00:17:26.400 to make a choice. Now she's my wife and I have two beautiful children. What an L. I was diagnosed
00:17:33.200 today and I cried for hours. Okay. Well, reverse girl just isn't for me. And I see your toes and throw
00:17:44.000 a gang sign. All right. Let's see who else is in this comment section. And you know, it's so funny.
00:17:52.460 It says, I've been getting cold sores and fever blisters since I was nine. I was told I got it as
00:17:58.360 an infant and I was most likely kissed by someone infected. So that's like HSV one. Um, like the cold
00:18:06.360 sores in the mouth, that's way more common and they blame it on someone kissing the kid, but it's more
00:18:11.580 likely that the mother had it, but we're not having that conversation. Who else has it? I went
00:18:17.800 out with a girl that had it for years when it was active. She'd say we'd have different fun. I never
00:18:22.320 even got it after I got tested. Wow. Actually that is the people I interviewed. The guy said a lot of
00:18:29.140 the girls that they hooked up with didn't get it or they never like one guy gave me his stats. He said
00:18:36.020 he hooked up with a hundred women, no protection, did not care, no medication. I'm telling you,
00:18:41.480 these guys are demons. Um, and he said maybe four girls got it out of a hundred. Now I don't know
00:18:49.220 if maybe some got it and didn't tell them they're sleeping with multiple guys. Let me know you guys'
00:18:55.760 experience in the comments. Um, my story's identical to yours. I also got it at 19. Let's see these
00:19:03.280 pictures on this one. No, I don't see any. Yeah. I'm 50 years old and contracted it from my husband.
00:19:09.440 He knew he had it before we married and never told me two years later. I found out he had it.
00:19:16.340 Guys, I'm telling you, be careful out there. I have HSV too and I'm still dealing with it.
00:19:23.300 I, um, it's from a man I trusted and loved. Of course. Yeah, I know. So
00:19:28.580 this is what she looks like. We got to tell me if you guys think you could tell with these women.
00:19:37.660 I don't think I would be able to guess. Here's another one. I have herpes and this is how I
00:19:43.140 disclose to my partners. Personally, I have HSV one and two and let me just tell you, it's nothing
00:19:49.680 to be ashamed of. Really important that you educate yourself around it so that having these
00:19:55.140 conversations make it a little bit easier. Also with practice takes time. So the ways that I disclose
00:20:01.240 is number one, having it immediately in my bio, keep my HSV one and two.
00:20:12.240 Yeah. So now she can make a job off of herpes. That's the incentive to talk about it on the
00:20:16.680 internet. Tik TOK into being worshiped and nothing less HSV one and two. Have you guys seen this on the
00:20:24.720 dating apps? Cause I mean, what, what do you got to put yourself in their shoes, right? What are
00:20:30.100 they going to do? They're, they're going to a lie. That's probably the most common to just put it on
00:20:35.080 the dating app. So they don't have to have an awkward conversation or three. What I've heard is
00:20:41.000 they might hook up with someone once and then tell them, throat goat it, then tell them
00:20:48.160 brutal man. Bumble bio here, my Tinder bio, same thing. And this is my field. It's a
00:20:56.760 yeah. Dinner dates, late night chats, um, into mindful, blah, blah, blah. If you call me a good
00:21:03.580 girl, it's game over. I'm a sex educator with a very public following, but I like to keep
00:21:08.360 my personal life private for now. HSV one and two. A bit more descriptive. If you catch my drift,
00:21:17.960 I usually have a conversation once I've matched with someone. Usually this conversation is about
00:21:24.340 our interests, our desires, and also sexual health. I either do this on app or once we've
00:21:30.280 switched to texting before we meet up in person, because I personally don't want to waste my time
00:21:34.840 with someone who doesn't want to be with me because of my herpes status. And this is an example
00:21:40.720 of a recent text exchange. Okay. I just wanted to let you know that I've HSV one and two. I take
00:21:46.400 Valtrex every day though, and I've never transmitted it to a partner just for aware. Uh, let me know if
00:21:51.720 you have any questions. Hey, I totally get it. Sounds like you have just moved over after the lockdowns
00:21:57.080 ended. Oh, and as long as you've got it under control, that's cool with me. We have this revenge
00:22:02.760 fantasy. Somebody's going to do it guys. All these porn stars getting married. A lot of them have
00:22:08.080 herpes. Um, things just started to open up. I moved to Austin in 2021 and yes, I did spend a few
00:22:13.500 years. What's your STI status? When did you last get tested? Um, have you lived anywhere else other
00:22:18.900 than Austin in the Bay? That's good to hear. It sounds like it's quite common, quite, oh my gosh,
00:22:24.300 quite common anyway. I've never had an STI before I've spent too much time in relationships. I did get
00:22:28.960 checked like a month ago and it was all clear. How about you? Guys are so desperate for vagina,
00:22:36.040 man. All right, let's see. Let's see the next one. Okay. So, so you know what the average I've seen
00:22:44.900 from the women in the comments and the women on screen, I would say it's four to six is my rating
00:22:52.340 for the herpes women. I haven't really seen a super attractive woman, but the thing is super
00:22:57.660 attractive women can go on the internet and just get attention. They don't have the incentive to
00:23:01.820 do a cause. They can just be hot. I don't know how, I don't know if it's, I think it's more common
00:23:08.420 with mids because mids I would say are sluttier. They got to put out more in order to compete with
00:23:13.100 the hot women. Um, so let me watch. One of the most heartbreaking things that I see with those of us
00:23:19.540 who get herpes is that people will just like completely take themselves out of the dating
00:23:25.120 world. Two things, actually removing yourself from the dating scene. And the other one is just like
00:23:30.300 deciding that you're going to settle for anyone who accepts your herpes status. I want you to think
00:23:36.020 about like, if you had herpes orally, which I know people who have it orally can struggle in their own
00:23:40.780 ways. And literally most humans have that whether they get cold sores or not. Like I probably have it
00:23:45.840 too, but when you have it orally, you wouldn't think about the fact. I'm so tired of people with herpes
00:23:50.400 trying to convince me that everyone has it. It's really common, but you know, speak for yourself.
00:23:56.240 You know what I mean? Like, could you just, uh, some of us did not get it. All right. We don't like
00:24:03.060 you can never, like I've never had a cold sore in my life. So yeah. So don't like, I hate it when
00:24:12.420 they said, let's normalize it. Look, I think that some, some women, cause some of the people I
00:24:18.020 interviewed, like one guy got it from his wife of 10 years. The other guy was a man hoe.
00:24:27.220 So I know that some people just take an L on this, right? I mean, one guy wore a condom. He's
00:24:32.560 allegedly, that's what he said. And he still got it. And so am I going to say that
00:24:38.920 I don't think, I think some people can have it and maybe they weren't that promiscuous. They just,
00:24:45.720 you know, trusted someone they shouldn't have. Um, however,
00:24:50.960 why would we want to make it more normal? Like why would we, nobody wants to do that.
00:24:55.980 Never make out with someone again. You can never date someone again. No one's going to accept you
00:24:59.320 and you have to settle. And that's because we don't stigmatize it the same way or even understand it the
00:25:03.520 same way, but we are just as much at risk of getting it genitally from people who have it
00:25:08.980 orally, unless you don't engage in oral, but like you have to remember that with herpes, you are not
00:25:15.980 contagious most of the time. And I know that we think about and fear the whole viral shedding thing,
00:25:21.740 but we only shed an estimated five to 20% of the year. And that varies from person to person. It
00:25:27.640 depends on how often you get flare ups and just your specific immune system. And shedding is the one
00:25:32.560 that's hard to get our head around because like, we can't really control it. And we don't necessarily
00:25:36.640 know when we're shedding. That's why we disclose to partners because at any point in time, there could
00:25:41.240 be a small risk, but that 80 to 95% of the time you're not contagious and you're not shedding. So
00:25:47.700 the chances that someone is going to get herpes from you, even if you're not taking any precautions
00:25:52.460 is still pretty low. Most people are getting in transit. I do think, I do think that's true based on
00:25:58.540 the research I've done. Um, but the thing is like, if you don't have it, you don't really want to get it.
00:26:07.020 No, I guess all the guys, there's guys that still will do it. But I think the general sentiment of people
00:26:14.240 that don't have it is that I do not want to risk getting it. I don't. I had this other front. I get a lot of
00:26:20.780 stories doing my job from different types of people. So I always kind of have to be broad. I
00:26:26.840 never want my sources to be, you know, docs leaked, whatever. But I have an older guy. He's, he's been
00:26:35.440 dating forever. And I don't know if he has it or not. I never straight up asked him, but he told me
00:26:40.700 a story of, he took a girl on a date and she said, I like you, but I really have herpes. I, I like you,
00:26:47.220 but I have herpes. That's what she said. And he said, well, there are some precautions we could
00:26:53.020 take. And I looked at him. I'm like, you did it. He's like, well, I was like, I was like, oh my God.
00:27:09.020 Yeah. I don't know. He was older. Maybe he had it too. I don't know. But it's like, damn.
00:27:13.980 It's meaning herpes, not knowing that they have it and not recognizing their symptoms when they
00:27:18.980 get them because they can be so mild. You as a person who's aware of your status can do so much
00:27:24.040 to protect your partner that someone who's unaware can't. Like avoiding activity when you feel a flare
00:27:29.120 up coming on. And sometimes you can feel you're shedding if you're getting like symptoms prior
00:27:33.160 to a flare up, but the flare up just never comes. You can assume you're shedding then. Doing that reduces
00:27:37.960 the risk a whole lot. Also just like being on antivirals daily, which some people are reduces it
00:27:43.520 greatly. Using protection, even though it's not foolproof, because it depends on where you have
00:27:47.780 it, but that still reduces the risk greatly. People still kiss and make out and date with people
00:27:52.680 who get cold sores, even knowing that they get them. There's absolutely no reason that you should
00:27:58.060 remove yourself from dating just because you have it below. You can do and enjoy everything in exactly
00:28:03.680 the same way. And just because there's more of a stigma based on where you have it, that's only
00:28:08.460 going to weed out uneducated, ignorant partners. But trust me when I tell you that most of them
00:28:13.440 offline and off TikTok troll culture don't care. I have pulled the hottest people since getting herpes
00:28:20.860 and since being single with it. It doesn't make a difference. But your energy and perspective around
00:28:26.220 it will. Yeah, what? That's nasty. Okay. Well, let me know what you guys' experience has been,
00:28:36.660 if you guys have it or not. If you know anybody that has it, do they lie? Are they honest?
00:28:43.720 What have you guys seen out there? Because that's where I get the most information is people that tell
00:28:49.100 me their stories. So let me know in the comments, like the video on your way out and subscribe and
00:28:53.320 I'll see you guys next time.