Herpes The STD That Lives In Your Body For Life

This hub provides advice on how to live with a herpes infection, the best treatments and how to reduce outbreaks and pain.

Living With Herpes

Learn how to cope with living with herpes. Genital Herpes like many STDs is on the rise and is common in the USA. One out of six, people 14 to 49 years of age have genital HSV-2 infection.

Genital herpes is an unpleasant sexually transmitted disease (STD) to which there is no cure and once you have been infected the disease attaches to your nerve system and remains in your body forever. It is caused by the herpes simplex viruses type 1 (HSV-1) or type 2 (HSV-2), but most genital herpes is caused by HSV-2.

Once you have been infected you will experience outbreaks when herpes manifests in the form of a collection of sores either in or around the genitals and/or buttocks. An outbreak can last from 2 to 10 days. How often you have these outbreaks is not known. Some people suffer an outbreak every month whilst others can have an dormant period of six months before outbreak. If your immune system is compromised it is likely that you will experience more outbreaks.

In order to cope with the pain that comes with a herpes breakouts you may have to resort to taking pain relief, but the best advice is to get your body into tip top condition and build up your immune system.

Although there are several prescribed antiviral medications available, they do pose a threat to your internal organs as the side effects are quite severe. However, Single Day Famciclovir is recommended along with natural supplements to build your immune system so that you can eventually wean off the prescribed medication.

For the sores and blisters Medavir a topical gel that has been FDA approved and proven to reduce and stop recurrent outbreaks of sores and lessens the amount of virus in the body with each successive treatment. Plus, the good news about Medavir is that there are no side effects.

How Do You Get Genital Herpes?

Generally speaking you only get genital herpes from sexual contact with someone who has a genital HSV-2 infection. The spread of the disease usually occurs when an infected partner who does not have a visible sore or may not even know that he or she is infected engages in unprotected sex.

HSV-1 can also cause genital herpes, but it more commonly seen as infections of the mouth and lips, known as “cold sores.”

If there is an HSV-1 infection of the genitals it was probably caused by oral-genital activity where one person who has an HSV-1 outbreak makes contact with another person through oral sex. The difference between Genital HSV-1 and 2 outbreaks is that HSV-1 recurs less regularly than genital HSV-2 outbreaks.

Genital Herpes Symptoms

Initially there are no or very minimal symptoms of herpes and most individuals are not aware that they are infected. However, if signs of infection do appear they occur during the first outbreak usually within two weeks after the virus is transmitted.

The outward manifestation of the infection is usually in the form of one or more blisters on or around the genitals or rectum. Other signs and symptoms during the primary outbreak may include:

• a second crop of sores
• flu-like symptoms
• swollen glands and
• a fever

The sores eventually turn into blisters and then break over a few days leaving the sores tender and painful. It can take two to four weeks for the sores to heal the first time they occur, and during that time you may experience:

• Tingling, itching or burning in the genital area
• A dull ache in the pit of your stomach
• Pain in the buttocks
• Sharp pains that run down the leg
• Painful sores in and around the genitals or buttocks

These symptoms occur because the virus is already reproducing in your body and attacking your nerve system.

After the first episode, another outbreak can appear weeks or months later. The good news about subsequent outbreaks is that they are less severe and shorter than the first outbreak.

However, the infection does stay in the body indefinitely, but the number of outbreaks tends to decrease as the years go by.

Genital Herpes Complications

Genital herpes causes recurrent painful genital sores in most adults, and if an individual is compromised with a suppressed immune system the herpes infection can be severe.

Unfortunately, for pregnant women genital HSV can lead to potentially fatal infections in babies. For this reason it is important that women avoid contracting herpes during pregnancy because a newly acquired infection during late pregnancy poses a dangerous risk of transmission to the baby.

A cesarean section of a baby is always performed if the woman has active genital herpes at the time of delivery.

Treatment of Genital Herpes

There is no cure for herpes. However, antiviral medications can shorten and prevent outbreaks during the period of time the person takes the medication. They can also stop the genital herpes virus from reproducing. If you can stop the virus during this time, you may be able to stop a full-blown outbreak.

Speak to your doctor about Famciclovir the first and only herpes medicine proven to stop or shorten a recurrent genital herpes outbreak with just a single day of treatment.

If you are not keen on using prescribed medication because of all the side effects you could take natural antiviral supplements, which although not as powerful as Famciclovir do help to alleviate some of the symptoms of herpes.