Four years ago Gina thought she had her world well in control. At twenty-three, she was engaged to be married and actively pursuing a career in law enforcement. Then her life took a nasty turn.
One morning she came down with what she thought was a yeast infection. She experienced itching in her genital area and a painful, burning sensation while urinating. She wasn't too concerned - until the next day when her temperature rose to 104 degrees and she developed flu-like symptoms.
Later that day, she discovered sores or lesions in the genital area and went to see her gynecologist. She was shocked when the doctor calmly ordered a herpes culture for her.
"He asked for it just like he was asking for a napkin to be passed over," Gina said in an interview. "I was totally shocked. I was engaged to be married. I didn't fool around. How could I have contracted herpes?"
She submitted to the tests. The doctor told her he would have the results in a week and asked her to come back then. Two days later she ended up in the emergency ward with a dangerously high fever. She was so ill she could barely walk and so sore that she had to fill the bathtub with warm water and sit in it in order to urinate.
The emergency room staff had no idea what was wrong with Gina. They told her to contact a gynecologist and sent her home with percocet, a narcotic pain reliever that did nothing to help her. The next day the mystery was solved when she called her gynecologist and discovered she had tested positive for genital herpes.
Her doctor prescribed the antiviral drug Valtrex, a common treatment for all herpes infections. He told her to take it twice a day for seven days. However, he gave her no information about the disease, and she had no idea that what she had was a lifelong incurable viral infection.
Still puzzled as to how she had contracted the infection, she asked her fiance if there was any chance he had herpes. He denied it and continued to deny it over the next couple of months. Then he had an outbreak and remarked that it had been a lot worse the year before. It became obvious that he did have herpes although he had not admitted it earlier either because he didn't realize what he had or because he was ashamed to admit it. He had never gone for treatment. The knowledge caused much distrust and bitterness and the relationship came to an end.
When Gina researched genital herpes, she realized the serious nature of her illness and discovered the social stigma attached to it. Many people believe that genital herpes is a disease of the promiscuous and anyone who contracts it must be "unclean." Gina became depressed. She began to miss work, withdraw socially and lose focus on her dream career in law enforcement. She felt, she said, like her life was over.
Determined to learn more about her disease, Gina began doing more research, mostly through Internet sources. She changed doctors and was put on the suppressive antiviral medication, Famvir. This has reduced her outbreaks from two major outbreaks a month to a couple of minor outbreaks a year.
