Hi there! I'm the original poster, and I so appreciate you commenting..... it's nice to know I'm not alone, although I'm so very sorry you're dealing with this too. It is very eye-opening to suddenly be facing an STD after 20+ years of being sexually active and yet being in a safe "bubble" due to being married the first time for so many years. I imagine there are a lot of middle-aged women like us who are dealing with this reality after divorce, and it really sucks. I feel like there's nothing out there for us. No vaccine. No real information or resources to help us avoid things like HPV. And I did my due diligence. I went to see my gynecologist right when I started dating my new husband, so that I could find out how to protect myself from anything that he might have. She said that men can't be tested for HPV, so if he had it, there was nothing I could do about it. Even using a condom isn't protection from HPV since you can get it from skin-to-skin contact. So I felt like it was a total crap shoot, but because he'd had several relationships previously, it was more likely than not that he had HPV. So it was like I was jumping off a cliff. But what else can you do -- when you fall in love with someone and want to live the rest of your life with that person and you can't determine if they have HPV.... you just jump and then deal with the consequences later. It's awful.
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Hi there! I'm the original poster, and I so appreciate you commenting..... it's nice to know I'm not alone, although I'm so very sorry you're dealing with this too. It is very eye-opening to suddenly be facing an STD after 20+ years of being sexually active and yet being in a safe "bubble" due to being married the first time for so many years. I imagine there are a lot of middle-aged women like us who are dealing with this reality after divorce, and it really sucks. I feel like there's nothing out there for us. No vaccine. No real information or resources to help us avoid things like HPV. And I did my due diligence. I went to see my gynecologist right when I started dating my new husband, so that I could find out how to protect myself from anything that he might have. She said that men can't be tested for HPV, so if he had it, there was nothing I could do about it. Even using a condom isn't protection from HPV since you can get it from skin-to-skin contact. So I felt like it was a total crap shoot, but because he'd had several relationships previously, it was more likely than not that he had HPV. So it was like I was jumping off a cliff. But what else can you do -- when you fall in love with someone and want to live the rest of your life with that person and you can't determine if they have HPV.... you just jump and then deal with the consequences later. It's awful.
Please let me know how your colposcopy goes!
May 27, 2009 - 5:34pmThis Comment
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