Herpes Symptoms

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Herpes Symptoms

Herpes symptoms may be difficult to identify and may vary from time to time. For example, they are usually more acute during a primary herpes infection. Symptoms may also vary according to the type of herpes virus, herpes virus-1 herpes simplex virus -2 and where it is located, oral or genital herpes.

Symptoms of herpes can be so mild they feel like a painless skin rash or so painful that you may have to take a painkiller. Blisters, even though they are often recognized as one of the major sign of herpes, may never appear.

The most severe cases of outbreaks in a healthy person generally occur 2 weeks after contracting herpes for the first time. Outbreaks may remain severe during the first year and then recede to the point of getting hardly detectable.
It is so easy to define common symptoms for herpes from a text book but herpes takes many shapes and is often confused with several other ailments.

Misleading herpes symptoms

A yeast infection (genital herpes)
A bladder infection. Some people suffer from urine retention caused by a genital herpes blister located in the urine canal.
Spider bites
Canker sores
Unexplained skin rash
Friction blisters
The flu
A cold
General fatigue
Muscle aches ...

So what is a real sign of herpes?

Common Signs of a herpes infection:

Early herpes symptoms may be flu like (optional)
Muscle aches (optional)
Swollen lymph nodes
Pain near the infection area (optional)
Skin redness
A nasty itch (as if somebody was itching you with a feather from the inside).
A burning sensation (from mild to really acute)
A bump (not very common, mostly during the first episodes of the infection).
Small blisters or a big blister (the small blisters may gather into a bigger one later)
An open sore
A crust
Normal skin and no symptoms. Sometimes the normal skin has a different color.

HSV symptoms can range from a small rash with a mild itchiness to all and more of the symptoms mentioned above. The absence of blisters doesn't mean you don�t have herpes. Let me repeat that. The absence of blisters doesn�t mean you don�t have herpes. I want to make that point very clear. Sometimes blisters are so small that they look like tiny paper cuts or mosquito bites.

More info on symptoms for genital herpes can be found here.

If you have some of these symptoms (at least 3) mentioned above that keep coming back from time to time and if you don't have another explanation for them, it is widely advisable to take a herpes test. To learn about other diseases that are commonly mistaken for genital herpes visit my page about other diseases that look like genital herpes.

Would you like to get rid of genital herpes symptoms for life? You can get immediate answers here.

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Pictures of herpes:
Do you want to go further in your understanding of herpes symptoms? Get a clear idea of what herpes looks like with these photos and resources.

What does herpes look like?
Get a clear description of what herpes looks like and feels like.

Herbal treatments for herpes
Would you like to know what herbs can do to prevent, alleviate and treat herpes? Then visit this page.