NPR story about Herpes Opportunity

Check it out!

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/01/22/463845334/a-common-secret-struggling-with-the-stigma-of-herpes

Awesome you got published in that article! I wish they'd added a lot more of what your normally say in there. I think the last bit about delivery of a baby and being so short. Along w being the ending, left a less than pleasant under tone for newbies especially. it's going to freak people out now.

Yeah I thought the same thing. They should have addressed that the ending story is not the norm! Jeez. Was good up until that point. But at least it talks about the stigma.

That's awesome! But I agree, the ending could have been a bit softer and not so alarmist... for one thing, it sounds like this happened many years ago and the other thing is the Dr's slipped up - she should have been tested for H when she got pregnant. But that is such a RARE thing nowadays.... and it would be even more rare if we were routinely tested and the stigma was lessened by open and honest dialogues about H

It is a great story and so glad he got the coverage he deserved for his work.

The ending, I have mixed feelings on...I know it's rare, but never the less can happen, if it's down played, with so much stigma, why disclose?

So maybe seeing the rare will help people come out of the closet (yep me included)

The stigma would be LESS if people didn't freak out about it, which would lead to MORE disclosures....and the thought of having a baby with Herpes freaks people out and now we will have women on here freaking out that they can never have a baby because of the risk..... I have to coach tons of women through this as is it... the risk is TINY ... especially of the woman is screened for Herpes during pregnancy as they can always do a cesarean if they have concerns of lesions being present during the birth....

Her husband evidently bought into the stigma and didn't tell her for fear of being rejected...

Stigma is brought on my shame. And as Brene Brown says about shame:

"Shame is the Swampland of the soul

If we can quiet it (shame) down and walk in and say "I'm going to do this" we look up and the critic that we see pointing and laughing 99% of the time is who? US! .... Shame drives two big tapes... "Never good enough" ... and if you can talk it out of that one .. "Who do you think you are?"

If you put shame in a petri dish it needs 3 things to grow exponentially - secrecy, silence, and judgement. If you put the same amount of shame into a petri dish and douse it with empathy, it can't survive. "

.... That's deep AND sooo true.....