Genital herpes may appear in the genital and surrounding areas of men and women. The infection is caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV), which can be found in central nervous system. It can be triggered by stress or lowered immune system.
Type 1 of this virus produces sores around the mouth. Type 2 more commonly attack the area around genitalia of women and men. The affected areas produce fluid when scratched, and tend to be red and burn.
The virus is contagious and its spreads through physical contact (sexual intercourse, oral or anal sex), or by sharing the same things with infected persons (towels, toothbrush, etc.). Herpes simplex virus may also infect you trough cracks on you skin.
In cases of a first time infection called primary infection, symptoms are mild fever, pains and aches. Some blisters may appear in areas around the mouth, anus or genitalia, and it is painful to urinate, especially with women. Blisters and later ulcers may last up to 10-20 days, and then slowly disappear, without living the scars.
For the primary herpes infections, it is very common for you not to show almost any kind of symptoms, or symptoms to be that mild or delayed (sometimes months later than infection occurs), that they passed unnoticed. In that, and some other cases, after the primary infection is over, the virus of herpes simplex remains dormant in your body. In those cases, you are apt to have a recurrence of genital herpes symptoms, meaning symptoms of herpes may repeat itself, in some period of time.
These recurrences of herpes symptoms tend to become less frequent over time. Exact cause of why symptoms reappear and when is not altogether clear. But when they do, symptoms are much less violent, and last approximately half the time of first primary infection up to 10 days. People in cases of recurrent burst of herpes infection do not usually have fever or are not so unwell. Frequency of recurrence of symptoms varies from case to case, and there are no rules about it. Sometimes it may be caused by an external trigger, like stress, sunshine, alcohol abuse etc.
In case you have some blisters in mentioned areas, it is a good idea for you to do some tests in order to be sure. Do you have a herpes infection or not? These tests are usually performed by taking a swab of your blister by your doctor. Later, this swab is analyzed not only for herpes, but for other STD-s, as well.
There are various kind of treatments for herpes genital infection. They are mostly antiviral medicaments, like famciclovir, aciclovir or valaciclovir. They are prescribed only in cases of primary infections. If you have several recurrences of symptoms, you may use these medicaments as prevention on a daily basis.
There are some things that you can do in your home to help yourselves to ease the symptoms;
Avoid smelly or scented bubble baths or soaps, because they can irritate your affected skin areas.You can place an ice pack wrapped in towel on areas with sores, in order to ease the pain and irritation.Avoid sharing towels and other similar objects with rest of your household.Avoid having any kind of sex during the period of infection and until doctors gives you clean bill of health.Drink lots of fluids for it can help you to urinate more easily.Anesthetic ointments may help you with pain and itching. You can find a variety of them in local pharmacies.
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