vaginapagina | Question about how to deal with stereotyping (Reply)

Lately I met a girl who opened up to me about having HSV (she's 8 months pregnant and discovered she had HSV from a blood test.) I'm glad she talked to me about it, because we both share the similar emotional problems that accompany the discovery of having HSV...
It's been almost a year sinc eI contracted HSV, and I've had (including the first outbreak) two total (I suppose I'm lucky in that aspect.) I also discovered in december (my routine pap) that I've got HPV. So needless to say, I've been pretty emotionally drained for the past year. My problem (besides learning how to cope with these two infections) is dealing wiht the stereotyping and the jokes that people make about HPV and HSV. I try not to take it personally when people crack jokes about herpes (usually it's genital herpes that people make jokes about; seems liek cold sores are more widely accepted.) It's hard to deal with or ignore, and I can't exactly say 'hey, shut the hell up. You're being insensitive...well, maybe I could, but then that would lead to questioning, and then I'd probably suffer from more embarassment. So my question to anyone (I'm not excluding anyone, so if you've got HPV or HSV or if you don't, I appreciate any advice) is how would you cope with people making jokes or comments about people with herpes or only promiscuous people having STI's...It's just relaly screwing with my head lately...
Thanks so much, I appreciate you guys!