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Genital Herpes Overview

Genital herpes is transmitted through intercourse, and is therefore properly categorized as an STD. There's been some suggestion that genital herpes can be transmitted through other means besides intercourse, through secondary means, but the evidence doesn't support this theory. Genital herpes is likely the most common STD: a safe estimate is that twenty percent of adults have it.

An important characteristic of genital herpes is the fact that it's essentially a "silent" disease: upwards of eighty percent of people with genital herpes don't realize they're infected. This unawareness of infection is not protection against transmission by any means: anyone with genital herpes, aware of their infection or not, can still spread their infection.

Genital herpes symptoms are often mistaken for common skin conditions: an ingrown hair, shaving irritation, jock itch, some type of a rash. Believing, or perhaps hoping, that what they perceive is not an STD of some kind, people tend to dismiss what are, in fact, symptoms of genital herpes, benign though they may appear.

Because of genital herpes' high rate of going unrecognized, it's accepted that genital herpes is typically asymptomatic, or that symptoms are usually very slight. When genital herpes symptoms present in such fashion that it's clear something's going on, the symptoms are typically discomfort in the affected area, followed by an appearance of blister clusters that become filled with fluid, break, scab, then heal. The appearance of genital herpes symptoms is often called an outbreak. Genital herpes outbreaks left untreated last in the neighborhood of two weeks.

Genital herpes tends to have quite a toxic reputation, but it's actually a basically benign condition: genital herpes is a nuisance, not a threat, not a risk to physical health and life. There are really only two exceptions to this: a severely immune suppressed individual, and infants who become infected during birth from infected mothers.

The most considerable threat from genital herpes is the emotional pain that can take place when an infection is verified. There's typically a psychological trauma that occurs on learning one has an STD, even if, as is the case with genital herpes, the STD isn't a threat to health. From the perspective of psychological trauma, it's important to keep in mind that genital herpes does not operate with any sort of morality in mind. There have been many individuals who conducted themselves in a completely upright and responsible manner and still became infected with genital herpes.

In couples, the appearance of genital herpes symptoms can be a great source of conflict. Genital herpes symptoms are often taken to mean a recent sexual encounter, and charges of infidelity can and do get thrown about. The notion that an appearance of genital herpes symptoms means a recent infection has taken place is not universally true. The symptoms of genital herpes don't appear on some regular schedule: they can appear several days after infection, yes, but they can be observed for the first time years, literally, after infection took place. Genital herpes symptoms are not smoking gun evidence that intercourse has recently occurred.

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