Genital herpes symptoms
What are the symptoms of genital warts?
Genital herpes is a contagious strain of
the HPV virus that effects the genital
regions of men and women and is transmitted
through sexual contact.
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Overview of herpes symptoms
Genital herpes is a very contagious sexually
transmitted disease. Caused by exposure to the
herpes simplex virus (HSV) through vaginal, anal or
oral sex with an infected partner, it is almost
impossible to contract HSV through contact with
toilets, bath towels or other items that may have
come in contact with an infected person. This is
because the virus dies quickly outside of the body.
Symptoms associated with genital herpes
There are noticeable symptoms that come with the herpes simplex
virus, which may be confused with symptoms from other illnesses.
After years of studying cases of genital herpes, researchers have
classified outbreaks of the herpes simplex virus into the following
categories:
• Primary: Primary initial infections cause the most severe
onset of symptoms. These include local and constitutional symptoms.
• Non-Primary: Non Primary initial infections produce milder
symptom severity, recognized as an average between primary and
recurrent.
• Initial: The symptoms that accompany either a primary or
non-primary outbreak.
• Recurrent: Recurrent occurrences produce the mildest of
symptoms and are accompanied by a phenomenon known as prodrome.
Prodrome is the body’s way of predicting when an outbreak will
occur, and a sufferer will begin to feel symptoms such as pain,
itching, or burning before the actual outbreak. This allows someone
with genital herpes to begin treatment before the outbreak actually
occurs, diminishing the severity and in some cases eliminating the
outbreak altogether.
Physical signs of genital herpes
Local symptoms are generally confined to the outbreak area and
include sores, irritation, itching and accompanying pain.
Constitutional symptoms are those symptoms that can be confused with
other illnesses and can include a fever, headache, malaise, muscle
pain or soreness, meningitis, dysuria (difficult or painful
urination), tender adenopathy (swollen lymph nodes) and urethral or
vaginal discharge.
If you find that you have sores in your genital area that are
accompanied by itching and pain, you may be suffering from genital
herpes. Once infected with the herpes simplex virus, the virus stays
in your body for life, but the visual signs and discomfort can be
treated.
Even with treatment, these visual signs of genital herpes may come
and go. When they are visible, it is commonly referred to as a
herpes outbreak, and when there are no visible signs of the disease,
it is known as silent.
Seeking professional help
If you suspect that you have genital herpes or know that you have
been exposed to them, seeking medical advice from your primary care
physician is the best place to begin to plan a course of action for
diagnosis and treatment. No matter how uncomfortable or embarrassing
the subject may be to you, it is important that you talk openly and
honestly with your doctor to ensure the best possible treatment in
the event that you have contracted the virus.
Your primary health physician will most likely test you for genital
herpes in one of two ways. The first is by viral culture. In this
procedure, the doctor will use a sterile cotton swap and rub the
base of a suspected herpes sore and send the sample to a lab to see
if it contains the herpes virus. Since the herpes virus is only
present in the outbreak of sores for a short period of time, the
test could come back negative, but you may still have the virus.
A Serology test, or blood test, will require your doctor to take a
blood sample from you and send it to a laboratory for examination to
determine if you have genital herpes.
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