Three Marriages so far and counting

We like to promote H-YPE as a community site where you can get the support you need and make a few friends along the way.

There is another side to H-YPE.....a dating side and we thought that a little reminder wouldn't hurt.

Many relationships have been born on H-YPE and through our many events. To date we have had 3 marriages as a direct result of meeting through H-YPE and we just wanted to shout that out to the world as we are ecstatic to have brought these 3 couples together.

The last couple wrote to us and said, "Well my partner and I got married last month, having met at your Valentine's party in London last year... we are incredibly happy and really can't believe that we found our perfect partners through a set of circumstances that may at first have seemed to be rather unfortunate. We feel amazingly lucky and had the most incredible sunny wedding day, celebrating with over 130 friends. Thank you very much to everyone at H-YPE for their part in introducing us and for organising so many of the kind of events we met each other at - we hope that many many more people find the kind of happiness we have."

Is that wonderful or what?

Might be worth you checking out H-YPE for yourself.

www.h-ype.com

If you liked H-YPE before then you will love us now!

H-YPE is considered to be the number 1 social site in the UK dedicated to assisting those with herpes and HPV. Though our membership does span the wide world.

We are constantly striving to make the H-YPE experience truly wonderful and we are never happy to be second best. So to continue being the best herpes and HPV social and community dating website we've made some improvements.

For those that have used our site before, you're probably wondering if it ain't broke don't fix it.......but we couldn't help ourselves. As a result, H-YPE's latest upgrade brings with it many new features........too many to discuss here.

Come check out what we have done and see for yourself why we are the number 1 herpes and HPV social site in the UK.

It's free to register and become a standard member. With that membership you can access quite a few features including the forum and events.

If you then feel like upgrading you can do so for as little as £3.95 a month. It works out even cheaper if you pay for longer term membership.

Anyway, come say hello and see what a wonderful and friendly community we have on H-YPE.

Go on.....Take the Leap and join the H-YPE! You'll be so glad you did.

www.h-ype.com

Membership prices

You may be thinking that our membership prices are too cheap considering all the features and services we offer for FULL ACCESS MEMBERSHIP.

At H-YPE, we actually think that the other herpes and HPV sites are too expensive. Why do they charge

You may be thinking that our membership prices are too cheap considering all the features and services we offer for FULL ACCESS MEMBERSHIP.

At H-YPE, we actually think that the other herpes and HPV sites are too expensive. Why do they charge so much? We honestly don't know. They may feel justified in charging astronomical amounts but we think they are simply taking advantage of your situation.

Our FULL ACCESS membership prices are as follows:

30 days - £3.95
90 days - £8.95
180 days - £15.95
365 days - £28.95

STANDARD membership is free but will give you limited access. We have kept the prices for FULL ACCESS low so that everyone can get the support they need based on neccessity and not their salary.

H-YPE constantly strives for excellence and our promise to you is that we will continue to make H-YPE the best, most secure and enjoyable site dedicated to herpes and HPV. The majority of your membership fee goes toward improving server response time, site development costs and staff administration in an effort to keep this promise.

To be or not to Herpe - sensitive login

No it's not H-YPE's version of a Shakespearean herpetic Hamlet but a more discerning way of logging in without the dreaded H words jumping out all over the page. This new login will prevent those unwanted eyes lurking in the shadows from discovering yo

No it's not H-YPE's version of a Shakespearean herpetic Hamlet but a more discerning way of logging in without the dreaded H words jumping out all over the page. This new login will prevent those unwanted eyes lurking in the shadows from discovering your secret.

In order for search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN to find us more easily, we need to have certain keywords like herpes dating community or genital warts appear on our site. This is to attract more people for you to meet and to help those that need our support but to do that they must be able to find us.

Now that you have found us, some of you may feel paranoid about having herpes or HPV references in your computer. Hence the more minimal usage of such words throughout the rest of this site.

To help get you there we have the regular login or the new sensitive login. The sensitive login is makes no reference to anything "H" so if you are are all nervous about using a herpes or HPV dating site then we suggest you bookmark it when you are there.

Help the HVA solve their funding crisis at no extra cost to yourself

Why is their a crisis?

The Department of Health has said "No more money after March 2009". Now they have a £25,000 hole in their yearly budget. The 'herpes stigma' makes it hard for them to fundraise.

Why is their a crisis?

The Department of Health has said "No more money after March 2009". Now they have a £25,000 hole in their yearly budget. The 'herpes stigma' makes it hard for them to fundraise.

What can you do to help?

Do your shopping on-line through 'EasyFundraising' portal: 100s of shops are there. Choose Shingles Support Society (one of their names) as 'your charity'.

• Go to the following URL http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk
• Register your details on that site - it's free
• Choose Shingles Support Society as 'your charity'
• Click on a company - and shop
• Part of what you spend will go to the HVA - easy
  

You can choose from over 600 high street names such as AA, Amazon, Asda, Boots, Comet, Dell, Marks & Spencer, Next, Toys"R"Us, Whittards, Yahoo and Yves Rocher.....just to name a few.

You don't have to use the word "herpes" when you register. It doesn't cost you a penny - it's for the benefit of the HVA. Shop through easyfundraising every time!

Can one have a normal birth with herpes?

Herpes homebirth

According to the stats, one in Five Americans has genital herpes. At one point the females within that figure will conceive and be faced with the challenges of a natural birth with herpes. The risked posed to the newborn child of coming into contact with the mothers lesions if she is having an outbreak at the time of birth. Scary business. Naish and Roberts in their book Healthy Lifestyle Better pregnancy writes .... [One infection that may persist into pregnancy, regardless of your preconception care, is herpes, as the virus is impossible to eradicate. It is a particular problem if there are lesions present in the birth canal at the time of delivery. This can have severe repercussions for the health of the baby, including brain damage, blindness or death, and a caesarean section may be necessary.

It was happy to remain dormant if I played by the rules which were very simply. Eat well. In fact my herpes outbreaks have come to signal to me today that something is not right within my body and is an ally rather than the enemy. I knew that I had more than reasonable amount of control over my outbreaks. I knew what brought them on and could anticipate within eight hours of eating a culprit food the tell tale signs that it was going to happen, that I would have an outbreak. Armed with this knowledge I ate right. I supplemented my diet with nutitional supplement to ensure that spur of the moment cravings would not undermine my strategy because I know what it is like wanting to have a pizza, badly, being to tired to cook and tasting the pizza knowing it's only a phone call and fifteen minutes away. That craving can be doubly worse when pregnant. So I armed myself. Was I getting enough calcium? And my zinc stores were they adequate? Every pregnant woman especially one with herpes should read Naish and Roberts' Healthy Lifestyle Better Pregnancy and stick to the chapter on supplements. I would swear by it.

I will admit I was thrown off once during my pregnancy. Six nems fried in God knows what oil from the Chinese fast food on an afternoon when I had nothing in the fridge. Never again. Never. What if I had done that closer to my due date. I was brought quickly to my senses and since then the fridge or cupboard has never been bare and I've never had another outbreak during a pregnancy. God forbid. Those risks are real and if you're going to go for the natural birth your commitment must be firm and your will is never to waiver.

Milk was off the menu, any dairy product for that matter and glutin. So forget the pizza. Sunflower oil or anything fried in it. And stress. All reasonably within my control. There are alternative sources of calcium and glutin free cereals like amaranth and quinoa are nutritionally packed foods (just get yourself a mill and be creative). As for stress I got my boss to pack in my classes all in the morning and with half an hour lunch time my day ended at two pm. After a half an hours walk back home I was free to relax on the sofa and go to sleep. What stress?

Oh yes the one which comes when your insides contract and try to expel the baby. Well if I got to this date outbreak free and providing this labour thing didn't drag on for three days I would be home free. Because that's the amount of time my body needs to transform stress, glutin or lactose into a live outbreak.

So what's there to do? Find out what triggers your outbreak. Log it. Keep away from it. Find a substitute for it so that you don't miss out on the nutrition the culprit food would provide. Ensure that your nutritional needs are being met and take your supplements as back up. You wouldn't drive your car without insurance would you? Take them just in case. Take them to keep the cravings away for they don't undermine your efforts at staying away from foods which trigger your outbreaks.

And relax. If push does come to shove (no pun intended) and you need to have a caesarean make peace with that before the date. Do your best but be willing to allow for the unpredictable, well in our case the possibly predictable.

Mandatory reading: Healthy Lifestyle Better Pregnancy By Naish and Roberts (If I could get this book in France it should be easier in an English speaking country)

Check out the book A Martyr for Mothers - mothering at the other end of the continuum ( the first chapter is called My Homebirth My Hospital Birth. The book is written by a mother who has herpes - me (Christy Charles) © Christy Charles June 2007

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Extracted from http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=16&id=31337

The upside of herpes - when one infection protects against another

When people say that every cloud has a silver lining, they probably aren't thinking about herpes at the time. Herpes may be unpleasant, but the viruses that cause it and related diseases could have a bright side. In mice at least, they provide resistance against bacteria, including the bubonic plague.

Herpes is one of a number of itchy, blistering diseases, caused by the group of viruses aptly-named herpesviruses. Eight members infect humans and cause a range of illnesses including glandular fever, chickenpox, shingles and, of course, herpes itself.

Almost everyone gets infected by one of these eight during their childhood. But herpesviruses are for life, not just for Christmas. After your body fights off the initial infection, the virus retreats into a dormant phase known as 'latency'. It remains hidden and causes no symptoms, but has the potential to reactivate at a later date. In this way, herpesviruses can seem like life-long parasites, ensuring their own survival at the cost of their host's future health. In extreme cases, latent viruses can lead to chronic inflammation, which in turn can cause autoimmune diseases, or some types of cancer.

But there is a bright side too. Erik Barton and colleagues from Washington University Medical School found that once infected mice entered the latent stage, they were surprisingly resistant to certain types of bacteria. Unlike their vulnerable uninfected peers, they even managed to ward off the deadly plague bug, Yersinia pestis.

At least in mice, latent herpesviruses turn out to be paying tenants rather than free-loading squatters - bacterial resistance is their rent. The latent stage is crucial to the resistance effect, and Barton found that a mutant herpesvirus that infects but doesn't set up shop provides no benefits to its host.

The viruses work their magic by putting the immune system on high alert. The effect is similar to a raising of the terror alert creating a heightened level of security where the body is prepared to fight off any further threats.The viruses trigger the release of high levels of immune system chemicals called cytokines. These molecules - including interferon-gamma (IFN-g) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a) - help to co-ordinate the defence against infections.

These chemicals activate macrophages - a type of white blood cell. These cellular assassins engulf invading bacteria, and sentence them to death by digestion. And in mice latently infected by herpesviruses, they are activated in bulk. This sequence is similar to the way the immune system normally protects us against multiple bacterial invaders. But in Barton's experiments, the protection was set off by viruses instead, and lasted for much longer than normal.

All well and good for the mice, but do these viruses benefit us too? Barton thinks so. In his study, two very different strains - murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (gHV68) and murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) - had the same effect. He believes that providing bacterial resistance is a general property of all herpesviruses.

There is certainly growing evidence to support his claims. If many people, the latent viruses reactivate regularly, but not strongly enough to cause major symptoms. In these cases, doctors have seen higher levels of cytokines and long-term activation of the immune system, just like Barton saw in his mice.

Barton even suggests that herpesvirus infection may play a role in protecting against allergies. According to the 'hygeine hypothesis', infections during childhood prime the immune system against future threats. By depriving children of these experiences, overly clean homes can lead to naïve immune systems that react disproportionately to harmless things like pollen. Allergies are the result.

It isn't clear what role herpesviruses play in priming the immune system. But at least one study found that people who are infected with the Epstein-Barr herpesvirus (EBV) are less likely to show sensitive antibody reactions to allergens in their environment. Clearly, the subject is a rich vein for further research.

Almost everyone has had an encounter with a herpesvirus of some kind. They cause a wide range of diseases, but could they be protecting us from many more?

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Article extracted from http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/02/the_upside_of_herpes_-_when_one_infection_protects_against_a.php

Coldsores equal herpes

Do you get coldsores? Did you know that coldsore is simply another word for herpes?

The English language is the only one that has another word for herpes. The next time you see a friend from a non-english speaking country with a coldsore, ask them what they call it in their language. They will say herpes.

Herpes is much more common than you think. Approximately one in four people have herpes and 80% of them don't actually know they have it because they show no symptoms but have been exposed to the Herpes Simplex Virus 1 and/or 2 (HSV I and/or II) at some point in their life.

So next time someone tells you they have herpes remember......it's only a coldsore.

Moving on.......if you have herpes or HPV then you should take a look at www.h-ype.com. It's a seriously cool place to make new friends with sometHing in common. It's currently free to join and use all the features so why not check it out?

Go on....take the leap and join the H-YPE! You'll be so glad you did.

The First Official H-YPE advert

Hope you like it!

H-YPE has had a refit

Come check out the new H-YPE! It's bigger, better and faster than before.

H-YPE is still free to use so take advantage of the free usage while you can. We will be charging eventually but not that much.

See you there.

www.h-ype.com

Telling someone you have herpes - how to tell them

This is never an easy thing to do but the most important thing is to tell them in a positive way. If you're in tears while telling them that you have herpes then that's how they will perceive the situation; as life destroying and who wants to get involved with a life destroyer?


Now, if you tell them you have herpes in a light-hearted manner and as if it hardly phases you, then they will see it in such a way.


Try to avoid the doom and gloom approach and be positive......and I'm not referring to your test results.

Since most people get coldsores on their mouth, then why not use that fact to your advantage.

• I usually start by saying I bumped into an old friend and they had a coldsore on their mouth.
• Ask them if they ever get coldsores and if they say yes then you're halfway there.
• Whether they say yes or no, ask if they know what the real name is for it and tell them it's herpes if they didn't already know.
• If they do get coldsores but didn't know that coldsores are herpes then they may be a little shocked.....but that's ok as that makes your job that much easier.
• Proceed to tell them that you too get coldsores but not on the mouth......just a little bit more south. If that doesn't click with them then tell them exactly where but be light-hearted; not serious.
• If you have access to the internet then have some sites saved in your favorites for them to check out so they can educate themself and not be scared off by looking at ignorant sites that do not understand that it's only a coldsore.
• If you don't have access to the internet then and there, some pamphlets from your clinic or local herpes association will suffice.
• Whether you do or don't have the internet or pamphlets at hand then be ready for their questions with educated and informative answers.
• And remember to stay calm and keep smiling.

The alternative is to use a herpes dating site such as H-YPE!, or why not try both?

Try using 437737 on regular dating sites!

What a random collection of numbers..........or is it really? It's actually a secret code that'll help you track down others herpsters via regular dating sites.

This is how it works: grab your mobile phone and enter the word herpes as you would a text but not in SMS mode; do it as if you were making a phonecall. Look at the display and it should say 437737.

Then go to a regular dating site and in your profile, write your schpeal as you would normally but add the number 437737 in your description either on its own or in a sentence such as "My lucky number is 437737" or maybe try "I can do 437737 push-ups". Then when someone wants to look for fellow herpsters they enter the number 437737 in the search bar and if that website allows for that type of search, you'll appear in the results.

If you find that to be a little too exposing then the alternative is to use a herpes dating site such as H-YPE!. H-YPE specializes ONLY in herpsters and provides internet access to herpes dating and building a herpes community....plus the great thing about it is that it DOES NOT scream out HERPES. It's very discreet and looks just like a regular dating site and can be used is public places such as work or internet cafes without worrying what what everyone else around is thinking. Also, only members are able to see your profile ensuring even more privacy.

Good luck in whichever you choose to do.

A seriously cool place to make friends with sometHing in common!

Just wanted to let you all know about my new Herpes Dating site called H-YPE! It stands for Herpes - Your Positive Experience!

Here's the link to my site:

http://www.h-ype.com/

It's free to join for the moment so check it out if you have the time. It has loads of features that will make your H-YPE experience as rewarding as possible. There are chat rooms, Instant Messaging, matchmaking, a forum where you can post to your heart's content, personal weblogs and so much more.

I will eventually be charging for the use of the site but it won't be that much so do yourself a favour and sign up to H-YPE and get dating.