Is there such thing as "mild" herpes?

I am pretty sure I have herpes, I contracted it over 10 years ago, back in 2006 I was around 17 years old, and I had horrible symptoms similar to a yeast infection (I did not know at the time), anyways the doctor said it looks like herpes, she tested it, it came back negative, and she was like it's probably a false negative, gave me a prescription for valtrex and I was on my way. I was obviously so crushed, it ruined my life at that time, I was too sickened and embarrassed to even fill the Rx, I threw it away. It soon went away and that was that.

Since then, I've had extremely mild, very TINY, like blackhead sized, bumps. I have still never felt the need to take any medication. It has never really bothered me at all since that time, the "first outbreak" or whatever...and nowadays it's basically unheard of. I KNOW I do have herpes for sure, but the outbreaks are so incredibly mild that I don't need to take the medication. I have also seen this type of herpes on another guy, he had these tiny little bumps all over his penis, and I quickly covered it with a condom and told him I can't have sex and just gave him a hand job and ran out of there!

Has anyone else ever had this? I know if I had the type of herpes people have nightmares about, the ones that come up on google pic search! I'd be so angry and depressed every time, and having to take the medication too! But I'm sure I'd come to terms with it eventually and learn to live with it after a few years. Now that I think about it, I probably wouldn't care much. I'm almost 30 and have no plans in life to get married, and have lost my libido now, so I don't care to have any relationships anymore. So I guess having a bad case of herpies wouldn't be so bad, there are worst things that can happen in life.

No idea if you have genital herpes. Visual diagnosis can be inaccurate.

If you do have genital herpes, you may have type 1, type 2, or both.

Genital HSV2 most often goes unnoticed. 80-90% of people don't notice when they contract genital HSV2 and then either have no symptoms or symptoms so mild they mistake the symptoms for something else (ingrown hair, yeast infection, pimple, razorburn, etc.). Those who do notice symptoms may have the type of significant symptoms you described you saw on Google, but that is generally the very first outbreak. If they have recurring symptoms, they are usually much more limited (such as a single small ulcer).

Genital HSV1 often results in a noticeable primary outbreak. However, those who have recurring symptoms typically have them less often than people who have recurrences caused by HSV2.

Don't know if the bumps you saw on someone else were herpes related. If they looked like little ulcers, that could be a good guess. But other things cause "bumps" as well.

It is not *necessary* to take antivirals. Those who take them generally take them either daily to reduce/eliminate outbreaks and/or reduce transmission risk to a partner, or they take them when they feel symptoms coming on to shorter the duration of symptoms.