I just found out I have genital herpes, and need some help.

First off Relax!!!!

This will only change your life as much as you allow it to. I've been living with it for almost 10 years, having had multiple serious and long term relationships in that time.

You may or may not get sores later on, probably so. But they are easy to deal with. See your doctor, get medicine and move on. If you do develop sores you may find a pattern to it. For me it seemed to be in the summer months when I was really hot, and after rough (protected) sex. To prevent this I keep myself very clean, and use baby powder every day to keep everything down there fresh and dry. And immedeatly clean after sex - using lubricated condoms and taking a shower immedeatly afterward has thus far prevented after-sex breakouts for several years.

As for precautions with future partners:

1 - ALWAYS USE A CONDOM - ALWAYS, no excuses! It is possible to spread the desease even when you are not showing breakouts. So better to be safe than sorry.

2 - Probably a good idea to let your partners know before you engage in sex. It's very difficult, and I can't say I've followed this rule 100% of the time, but if it's someone you really care about it is best to let them decide for themselves. Most of the time they will respect your integrity and see how much you respect them and their health. I've had four possible long term relationships where I shared this info with my partner - only one of those three has choosen not to pursue the relationship due to this. The others all were multiple year relationships where I was very safe with my partner and none of them tested positive while in the relationship with me.

3 - You can and should kiss your future partners. No real worries there.

4 - Obstain from sexual relations anytime you have a visible breakout, or think one might be coming. Most often you'll feel the lymph node in your hip (just to the right and/or left of your crotch get sore a day or two before the visible breakouts. You'll also notice a redness on your genitals and then the blisters will come. At the first sign of any of these symptoms go to your doctor and get some meds to prevent/shorten the time of the outbreak

5 - pay attention to your body and realize what is causing the breakouts. Again for me it was stress and heat/cleanliness. Using baby powder every day, eating healthy, exercising often and taking a valtrax at the first sign of possible symptoms has kept me from having a full breakout in 3 years.

Again the most important thing to remember is to relax. This happens to 1 out of every 5 people in American. Your life isn't over and there are a lot of strong women out there who will be accepting of this condition and make a wonderful partner for you when you are ready. In the meantime be as safe as you can and just don't do anything to put someone else's health in danger.

Herpes is weird it does not show up right away usually no symptoms at first then you get some heavy duty outbreaks which lessen the longer you have it and Valtrex helps control the number of outbreaks.  Sorry yes you life will be different.