How can you tell if your boyfriend has genital herpes?
May 27, 2010 by admin
Filed under Discussion
How could you tell if he (or she) has genital herpes and they just aren’t inflamed? Would I get them even though he doesn’t have any warts on his penis at the moment? We have a lot of unprotected sex.
You cant tell if they dont have an out break, But even if they are not having an out break you can still catch them if they are not being treated for it. unprotected sex is a sure way of getting them so be safe not sorry. Hope this helps
http://www.bbc.co.uk/relationships/sex_and_sexual_health/stis_herpes.shtml
most of the time u can’t tell just by looking. every one who has herpes is different so its kind of hard to tell just by looking at pics on web sites and those are mostly extreme cases. u have to get him tested for herpes at a local clinic or your regular doctor. u should get tested for herpes as well if your worried about getting herpes.
with herpes it wouldn’t matter if u had unprotected sex or not. if they had an out break out side of where the condom covers then u still have a risk of getting herpes.
You can only tell visually. Unfortunately sometimes the sores are in the inside and not the outside. And technically even if he Carries the virus, he is not contagious unless he is having an outbreak. BUT they say “you can spread herpes even when your not having an outbreak” because some people have outbreaks inside where you cannot see. That is another reason why a lot of people are walking around with herpes and don’t even know they are spreading it around. The only way to know for sure is to get a blood test.
First of all it is extremely difficult to determine if somebody suffers from the herpes simplex virus, unless of course they are having a severe attack, in which case it would be possible to see the sores and blisters on the genital area, along with redness, or sometimes a rash. However a lot of people have minor outbreaks where the sores are not visible or may be in the inside of the genitals.
You need to extremely careful here because a person with genital herpes CAN transmit the virus to somebody else even without having a visible outbreak with sores. This process is called ‘viral shedding’. It means that the herpes virus can become live from its normal dormant state and replicate and descend to the nerves. A person with herpes normally has several days per year where the herpes virus undergoes viral shedding. During viral shedding there are no sores, however the virus is active from its normal dormant state (i.e when there is no outbreak of sores) and live on the nerves. Hence it can be transmitted to another person during sexual intercourse, oral sex or kissing/touching in the genital area.
Safe sex with a condom is obviously better than unprotected sex, and condoms can protect you from most STDs, although not 100% guaranteed, as they can split or tear. However with herpes you CAN still become infected with the virus by an infected partner who used condoms, as they often have areas on the outer genitals where outbreaks, or crops of sores occur where the condom does not cover.
You need to talk to your partner about this and practise safe sex. Do not have unprotected sex, in order to protect yourself and especially not when he/she has an outbreak.
Blood tests are not highly reliable to detect herpes simplex virus, and the swob tests are only 60% effective. They can only give an indication and diagnosis of herpes if it is tested and caught in time at its initial stage.
Finally, herpes is often overlooked and lack of awareness often leads to misinformation. There currently is no cure for genital herpes. However there are anti-viral medicines that can suppress the virus during an outbreak and speed up the healing of a reoccurring attack.
Herpes can come back at anytime, although a persons outbreaks will lessen over the years.
Cold sores on the mouth are also herpes simplex virus. They are herpes simplex type 1 (HS V1) and a person with a cold sore on their mouth CAN infect a person with genital herpes via oral sex.
Talk to your boyfriend about protecting yourselves and remember that although it may be embarrassing to do so, herpes is for life. So it is better to be aware and safe, than ignorant and suffer in silence.
Good luck