Why Is Herpes Stigma Still a Thing? Michael Stahl, provided by FacebookTwitterEmail Late one evening four years ago, Erica Spera, then 25, noticed two bumps blooming in her vaginal area. The discovery alarmed her because, a week earlier, after not having sex for about six months, the New York City comedian twice hooked up with a new partner. Spera believed she was generally on the careful side of the spectrum, landing there in part because, during college, a friend of hers had contracted genital herpes. She’d asked the man if he ever had a sexually transmitted infection, and he’d said no. But with nothing to be done about the bumps as she readied for bed, Spera decided to visit a walk-in medical care clinic the next day. When she woke up, the number of bumps had doubled, totaling half a dozen by the time she disrobed for the doctor.