DEAR DR. GOTT: First, I want to say that I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time. Then I want to tell you it makes me furious to have everyone assume that a person who has herpes has been promiscuous.

I, too, have herpes outbreaks at a spot on my buttocks, and there is no doubt in my mind where I got it — at the hospital. Having been monogamous for at least 12 years at the time, I had to have emergency surgery, and the herpes popped up within a week of discharge. The outbreak was exactly where I got all my pain shots. The location migrates just a bit every time it crops up, but it’s never been anywhere close to my genital area, thank heavens. A friend of mine also says she got herpes in the same hospital, years earlier. We’ve been friends for 30 years, and I just found that out last year. Her outbreaks are on her inner thigh, much closer to her knee than to her genitals.
[Read more…]