Best Way To Avoid Herpes Outbreaks

Can Genital Herpes Be Prevented

Practising safe sex is the best way to help prevent genital herpes infection.

It is safest to:

• always use condoms and dental dams, even when there are no sores or blisters present
• avoid sex when there are sores or blisters present you are most infectious at this time
• avoid sex with someone who has any blisters, sores or other symptoms of genital herpes
• avoid oral sex when there is any sign of a cold sore

Can I Treat Herpes Simplex At Home

Avoiding known triggers, such as illness or stress, can help reduce how often you have herpes outbreaks.

How can I ease my symptoms during an outbreak of HSV-1 ?

• Over-the-counter creams such as L-lysine, benzocaine or docosanol .
• Applying ice to blisters or sores.

How can I ease my symptoms during an outbreak of HSV-2 ?

• Apply an ice pack to your genitals. Wrap the ice pack in a washcloth or apply it over your underwear.
• Keep your genitals dry. Wear cotton or other nonsynthetic underpants and avoid tight-fitting clothes. Moist sores take longer to heal.
• Soak in a warm bath.
• Take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to relieve pain.
• Topical 1% or 2% lidocaine may be used as a topical analgesic.

How Can I Make Sure I Dont Give Anyone Herpes

If you find out that you have herpes, try not to freak out. There are a few ways that you can stop it from spreading to your partners and other parts of your body.

• Talk with your doctor about taking herpes medication every day, which can lower your chances of spreading herpes.

• Dont have sex during a herpes outbreak, even with a condom. There may be sores on places the condom doesnt cover.

• Learn how to tell when an outbreak is coming, and stop having sex right when you notice these signs. You may feel a burning, itching, or tingling feeling that lets you know youre about to get sores.

• Dont have sex until your sores are totally gone, and the scabs heal and fall off.

• Dont touch your herpes sores, because you can spread the infection to other parts of your body or other people. If you touch a sore, wash your hands with soap and water right after.

• Dont wet contact lenses with spit this might spread your oral herpes to your eye.

• If you have a cold sore on your mouth, don’t kiss anyone especially babies, children, or pregnant women.

• Always tell your sexual partners that you have herpes before you have sex, so you can work together to prevent it from spreading. Telling someone you have an STD can be hard, but herpes is super common and doesnt lead to serious health problems. So try not to be too embarrassed or stressed out about it.

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Is Genital Herpes Infection Related To Hiv

Herpes and HIV are caused by different viruses. But patients infected with these viruses are more likely to transmit either disease to their sexual partners. Patients with herpes are more vulnerable to HIV infection. People newly diagnosed with herpes should be tested for HIV infection and other sexually transmitted infections.

Patients who are infected with both herpes and HIV also may have a higher concentration of HIV viruses in their body because of the interaction between the herpes virus and the HIV virus. When HIV damages a persons immune system, the person may be more likely to shed herpes simplex virus asymptomatically.

How To Treat A Genital Herpes Outbreak Quickly And Dry Out

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What You Need To Know

• Herpes simplex virus , also known as genital herpes, is most likely to be spread when an infected person is having an outbreak, but it can also be transmitted without any symptoms being present.
• Medications can help reduce your symptoms, speed up the healing of an outbreak and make you less contagious.
• If you know you have genital herpes before becoming pregnant, your physician will monitor your condition throughout your pregnancy. If you have an active outbreak at the time of delivery, cesarean section may be recommended.

Upgrade Your Eating Habits

Are you eating a standard American diet, or SAD? That means eating lots of meat, fast foods, and processed foods and few fresh fruits and vegetables. Such habits not only work against living comfortably with herpes, they also raise your risk for many diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Consider upgrading your eating habits through a few, not-so-hard-to-make changes.

Eat more veggies. Try to prepare home-cooked food more often. Eat until you are satisfied, not stuffed, says LeeAnn Weintraub, RD, MPH, a registered dietitian based in Los Angeles. She considers these three tips to be the first steps anyone who wants to eat more healthfully should follow.

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How Long Do Sores From Herpes Simplex Last

If youre infected with HSV-1, commonly known as oral herpes, you may notice tingling or burning around your mouth in the days before a cold sore appears. These blisters break open and ooze fluid before forming a crust. Usually, sores last for seven to 10 days.

If youre infected with HSV-2, commonly known as genital herpes, your first outbreak may last between two to four weeks. Recurrent outbreaks usually last between three to seven days.

What Do Genital Herpes Symptoms Look Like

Other symptoms can include:

• tingling or burning around the genitals
• feeling unwell, with aches, pains and flu-like symptoms
• unusual vaginal discharge in women.

Many people with genital herpes wont get any symptoms, or may get symptoms for the first time months or even years after they were infected.

For most people, the blisters go away within one to two weeks. Although the outbreaks clear-up by themselves, the virus stays in the body. This means that people usually get blisters again which is called having a recurrent outbreak. Outbreaks usually become shorter and less severe over time.

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Pay Attention To What You Eat

ASHA reports that some people believe foods containing the amino acid arginine, such as legumes and whole grains, can contribute to outbreaks. A few older studies, conducted in 1981 and 1987, showed a possible connection, but ASHA states there is no clinical evidence to support these studies. However, because triggers may vary based on the individual, keep track of the foods you eat to determine if there is a connection.

How Can Herpes Be Prevented

Correct and consistent use of latex condoms can reduce, but not eliminate, the risk of transmitting or acquiring genital herpes because herpes virus shedding can occur in areas that are not covered by a condom.25,26

The surest way to avoid transmission of STDs, including genital herpes, is to abstain from sexual contact, or to be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested for STDs and is known to be uninfected.

Persons with herpes should abstain from sexual activity with partners when herpes lesions or other symptoms of herpes are present. It is important to know that even if a person does not have any symptoms, he or she can still infect sex partners. Sex partners of infected persons should be advised that they may become infected and they should use condoms to reduce the risk. Sex partners can seek testing to determine if they are infected with HSV.

Daily treatment with valacyclovir decreases the rate of HSV-2 transmission in discordant, heterosexual couples in which the source partner has a history of genital HSV-2 infection. 27 Such couples should be encouraged to consider suppressive antiviral therapy as part of a strategy to prevent transmission, in addition to consistent condom use and avoidance of sexual activity during recurrences.

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Do Natural Remedies Help

There are several options that can be tried to ease the pain. A73612 and Donnor52059 suggest dabbing cornstarch directly on the sores. I can’t find any scientific studies that have researched this, but I can’t see that it would do any harm.

A73612 also recommends squirting water from a bottle over the sores when you pee. This is a time-honoured method that will help to ease the pain.

Yolandayw mentioned taking a simple painkiller such as paracetamol during an outbreak. Feelbroken advised putting Vaseline on the sores. Lidocaine 5%, a local anaesthetic gel that numbs the area, is another option. Some people find it helpful to put on five minutes before passing urine. You need to get it on prescription and it doesn’t suit everyone. Some people develop sensitivity to it which makes the symptoms worse.

Yolandayw also advised using ice as a home remedy. Simply wrap the ice in a tea towel and apply for 5-10 minutes. Never put ice directly on the skin as this can cause ‘ice burn’. Drinking plenty of water can also be helpful as it reduces the concentration of urine, making it less painful when you have to pee.

D91907 mentioned putting aloe vera gel on the sores. There is some scientific evidence that aloe vera is useful for both genital and oral herpes.

Cold Sores: Common And Contagious

Cold sores are common and mostly harmless. Theyre caused by the herpes simplex virus, which spreads easily from person to person.

In some lucky people, the virus might cause a cold sore onceor twice and never rear its head again. But for other people, they come backagain and again, sometimes several times a year. And that gets old real fast.

They tend to go away on their own in 10 to 14 days, says Dr.Beers. But that doesnt make them any less annoying.

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Symptoms Of Genital Herpes

Many people who have genital herpes may not be aware they have the infection, because they may not have any symptoms.

The first episode of herpes can cause considerable pain and distress. Symptoms of the first episode may include:

• flu-like symptoms such as feeling unwell, headaches and pains in the back and legs, with or without enlarged glands in the groin
• small blisters around the genitals these break open to form shallow, painful ulcers, which scab over and heal after one to two weeks
• small cracks in the skin with or without an itch or tingling
• redness or a distinct rash
• some people also have considerable pain and swelling in the genital area, and hence may have additional pain and difficulty passing urine.

What Are The Complications Of Genital Herpes

Genital herpes may cause painful genital ulcers that can be severe and persistent in persons with suppressed immune systems, such as HIV-infected persons. 5 Both HSV-1 and HSV-2 can also cause rare but serious complications such as aseptic meningitis . 5 Development of extragenital lesions may occur during the course of infection. 5

There are also potential complications for a pregnant woman and her newborn child. See How does herpes infection affect a pregnant woman and her baby? below for information about this.

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Herpes And Herpes Outbreak

Herpes is the main disease caused by the herpes simplex virus. Anyone infected with the virus can develop it.

The most common signs and symptoms of herpes are redness of an area of the body and the appearance of painful blisters on this area which burst and turn into sores.

Herpes and herpes outbreak are two different concepts. The first concept refers to the disease, i.e. a disturbance in the normal functioning of the body caused by the herpes simplex virus. The second concept refers to the process of the appearance of signs and symptoms of the disease.

People who know they are infected with the virus and have never had an outbreak can transmit the virus and often suffer from psycho-emotional disorders associated with the disease.

These people are often concerned about the occurrence of an outbreak and the rejection they may receive from others.

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How To Get Rid Of Herpes The Conventional Way

For most people with herpes, the virus typically represents nothing more than an inconvenience however, the real risk is for immuno-compromised patients who cant easily manage infections. In these patients, such as those with HIV/AIDS, herpes simplex infection is associated with increased morbidity and mortality.

As of 2017, there is not currently a herpes vaccine available to prevent HSV-1 or HSV-2.

Doctors sometimes prescribe medications to help keep the herpes virus suppressed or to speed up healing of cold sores by reducing bacteria that can cause infections. Some medications that are now used to control herpes include:

• Nucleoside analogues and antiviral medications
• Creams/ointment to help lower pain and inflammation near the site of sores
• Over-the-counter painkillers to reduce aches, tenderness or fever

However, its important to understand that even with early detection and prescription medications, either form of the herpes virus cannot be totally cured so transmission is always still possible. Medications for viruses dont always work long term and are not a cure-all.

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What Are The Risks Of Getting Hsv From An Infected Person

HSV-2 most commonly causes genital herpes through contact with genital sores. However, it can even spread when there are no visible sores or partners who dont even know that they are infected. According to statistics, around 87% of people infected with HSV-2 dont know that they have the disease.

Several studies have experimented with the rate of transmission between partners. According to a 2004 study of the New England Journal of Medicine, there were 1484 couples, and one of the partners had the virus. The asymptomatic partner had monthly checkups to check for symptoms of the disease. Doctors educated 741 couples about protection using condoms to avoid herpes transmission. Amongst those couples, only 27 became infected, and 16 of them had an outbreak.

According to the CDC, almost 775,000 people contract genital herpes infection. Moreover, it is common in women because it transmits from men to women during sexual contact. Other than avoiding sexual contact, there is no other way to prevent the transmission completely. Using condoms can reduce the transmission, but it doesnt eliminate the risk. Alternatively, there is another method to reduce the risk of using antiviral medicines.

Simple Treatments For The Relief Of Discomfort

• Wear loose underclothes, preferably cotton , to help minimise discomfort and allow healing.
• Use plain water or saline solution with cotton wool to clean and soothe the area. To make a saline solution, use 1 teaspoon of salt in 600ml of water or a handful of salt in a shallow bath.
• Dont use scented soaps, bubble bath, etc in the area, as these may irritate it.
• Using a hairdryer on its lowest setting to dry the area may be more comfortable than using a towel.
• Pain relief medication such as paracetamol and ibuprofen may ease the pain. Check with your pharmacist or other health professional whether taking these is suitable for you.
• Ice wrapped in a face cloth or flannel and placed over the sores for 510 minutes may be soothing. Dont apply ice directly to the sores as this can cause ice burn.
• If you find peeing painful, try applying Vaseline® to the area or sitting in a warm bath before urinating or using a pump bottle full of water and spraying water on yourself while peeing.
• You can also try applying a pain relief cream such as lignocaine cream to the painful area. This is applied 5 minutes before peeing and should be used for a maximum of 12 days.
• Drink plenty of fluids as this dilutes your pee and may help reduce stinging.

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Why Genital Herpes Comes Back

Genital herpes is caused by a virus called herpes simplex. Once you have the virus, it stays in your body.

It will not spread in your body to cause blisters elsewhere. It stays in a nearby nerve and causes blisters in the same area.

If you can, avoid things that trigger your symptoms.

Triggers can include:

• surgery on your genital area
• a weakened immune system for example, from having chemotherapy for cancer

What Happens If I Dont Receive Treatment

Genital herpes can cause painful genital sores and can be severe in people with suppressed immune systems.

If you touch your sores or fluids from the sores, you may transfer herpes to another body part like your eyes. Do not touch the sores or fluids to avoid spreading herpes to another part of your body. If you do touch the sores or fluids, quickly wash your hands thoroughly to help avoid spreading the infection.

If you are pregnant, there can be problems for you and your unborn fetus, or newborn baby. See Im pregnant. How could genital herpes affect my baby? for information about this.

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