What is Genital Herpes?

Genital herpes is caused by the herpes simplex 2 virus. This type of herpes is a sexually transmitted disease and appears in sexually active adults. Between a couple of days and a couple of weeks after being initially infected, genital herpes symptoms will appear and include tenderness in the genital area, fever, headache, a general feeling of tiredness, as well as sores in the genital area, around the anus, or on the thighs. These blisters can become large sores that take several weeks to heal.

After this initial appearance, most can expect to have several more outbreaks in the next twelve months, but the virus will then go into dormancy and randomly reappear later. If a stressful event triggers causes a reoccurrence, it will generally include all of the original genital herpes symptoms, but they will be slightly less severe and heal more quickly in later episodes.

How Do You Get Genital Herpes?

Genital herpes is transmitted by sexual contact with an infected person. The virus is typically passed from active sores, and enters through the mucous membranes. Condoms can help minimize transmission of the virus, but sores may be present in places not covered by the condom. Additionally, infection can also happen even if there are no sores and no open skin is present. This is a problem, since some do not even know they are infected and inadvertently pass genital herpes to their sexual partners.

Genital Herpes Treatments

If there are active sores, most doctors can diagnose genital herpes just by looking. If no sores are present, it is diagnosed with a simple blood test. There is no cure, but once diagnosis is confirmed, doctors can prescribe genital herpes treatments. Several antiviral prescriptions are available which can shorten the healing time of outbreaks. There also daily medications that can help minimize a reoccurrence and the risk of infecting sexual partners, although they are not fail proof.