When the term "herpes" is used, most people think of genital herpes, the sexually transmitted type. This article will indeed address herpes simplex 2, the STD form of herpes.
However, there are other types of herpes infections. All herpes infections manifest as inflammation, by which is meant heat, redness and swelling. All herpes infections have crops of small vesicles. Vesicles are small fluid-filled bubbles on the skin or mucous membranes. All herpes viruses remain in the body, sometimes to recur as repeated infection, sometimes latent forever.
Types of Herpes Infections
Herpes zoster is commonly known as chickenpox; which can reoccur as shingles.
Fever blisters, or cold sores on the lip, which can occur with stress, fever, illness or sunburn, are from a different type, called herpes simplex 1. This same virus causes wrestler's herpes--sores that emerge on the skin when a wrestler has floor burns or has been rubbed raw from pushing and twisting.
Herpes simplex 2 is the usual viral cause of genital herpes. One in five adults has this type of herpes. Many times a patient will come in long after genital symptoms have subsided or perhaps after minimal signs later raised questions. There is a blood test that measures if someone has had herpes simplex and whether they have type 1 or 2. Unfortunately, the results of this test don't always provide a clear answer; cold sores on the mouth are infrequently caused by herpes simplex 2 (genital type), and sometimes genital herpes are caused by herpes simplex 1( cold sore type).
First Signs of Genital Herpes
If it is your first infection, symptoms tend to be dramatic. Nonetheless, early warning signs are often confusing and often point doctors and patients to the wrong conclusion.
Fever, muscle aches, fatigue: Your body reacts to a first infection by fighting the virus as hard as it can. Just as your immune system is working hard when you have any virus such as the flu, chickenpox and many others, general body reactions are often common. You feel achy and exhausted and your joints and muscles hurt.
Painful Urination: It may be hard to get your bladder to start emptying, or you may notice burning during or after you finish urinating. Your health-care provider will rightly check for a bladder infection, but this can also be an early sign of herpes.
Soreness, tingling or stabbing pain around the labia (opening lips of the vagina) in women, and penis and scrotum in men.
Itching: Some women assume they have a yeast infection and use over-the-counter yeast medication, which will not help in this disease. Men may believe they have jock itch and try to treat accordingly.
Mild vaginal discharge: Again, this would prompt a search for multiple causes.
Red rash: This develops before the later characteristic fluid-filled bubbles (think of chicken pox blisters) appear. A simple red rash sometimes leads men or women to wonder if it is an allergic reaction to the brand of underwear or type of detergent; due to a sexual position; or other cause.
Could You Have Herpes?
Once the characteristic rash of crops of tiny fluid-filled blisters appear, the diagnosis is clear. Your health-care provider can obtain a culture from one of the blisters to confirm the answer: Is it herpes? For women, sometimes the herpes blisters are only on the cervix, visible only on internal exam, so it is critical to get in as soon as symptoms suggest this disease. Consider the possibility not only when you have a new sexual partner, but also your current partner could have had herpes in the past and is now passing it on to you. Someone who has had herpes can shed the virus even when they have no active rash, blisters or any other sign of disease.
Seeing your doctor or nurse practitioner right away is important because there is medicine to treat this infection. The medication cuts short the active disease, as well as halting your painful symptoms, though it is unable to eradicate the disease from your body. The treatment cannot get at the virus when it goes into a dormant, or hidden, state in your body. Some men and women take the medicine if they develop recurrent attacks to keep the disease at bay and to reduce the risk of shedding the virus unknowingly.
