One of the fastest growing diseases in the United States is herpes.  Genital herpes affects one out of every four adults in this country, according to the Centers for Disease Control.  It is far and away the most common sexually transmitted disease, and its infection rate doesn’t show any signs of slowing down anytime soon.  Like most other venereal diseases, doctors are mystified as to where and how it originated, but it seems much more virulent than most other STDs, meaning that it’s much more easily transmitted from one person to another.

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Everyone needs to know the facts about herpes type 2 if they intend to keep themselves free of this widespread sexually transmitted disease.  Pretty much everyone is aware that there is a sexually transmitted disease called herpes, but then they get bombarded with information about different kinds of herpes like type 1, type 2, cold sores (fever blisters), etc.  With all this information overload it can be difficult to sort out the really important facts about herpes type 2, which is the main cause of genital herpes.
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Do you know how to prevent herpes transmission?  We should point out right up front that, aside from being one hundred percent celibate, there really is no guaranteed, foolproof method that can entirely eliminate the risk of transmitting herpes to another person.  That being said, however, there are a great many things you can do which can greatly reduce the risk.  Right now herpes isn’t curable, but it is manageable, and part of managing it means reducing the risk of herpes transmission as close as possible to zero.

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Do you know how to spot the stages of herpes?  If you’re like millions of people, you may not even understand this question, which is vitally important to anyone who’s sexually active these days.  Many people upon reading that question were no doubt puzzled, because they don’t even realize that herpes symptoms come in stages.  Well, they do, and if you’re going to protect your health, you need to be able to understand the stages of herpes so you can look for them in potential partners, and also in yourself, should you ever be infected.
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What are the facts about herpes sores?  That’s an important question that everyone should know the answer to.  There seems to be a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about this admittedly unpleasant topic, but in this case, ignorance is most definitely not bliss.  Genital herpes and other forms of the virus are rampant, and everyone of us needs to know as much as we can about it.   In this article we’ll focus only on herpes sores, since that seems to be the source of much of the confusion that’s out there.  We’ll do it in a Q&A format.
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Are there different stages of herpes?  Yes, there certainly are, and it’s extremely important that you understand the various stages so you can protect your health.  Many people don’t have much knowledge about herpes, its symptoms, or how the virus acts in different people’s systems.  That’s a big part of the reason that so many people are coming down with it.  Doctors from the Centers for Disease Control estimate that one out of four American has genital herpes.  This refers only to people who suffer active outbreaks; almost everyone of us has one or more herpes viruses inside us.  But in most people they’re dormant.  When symptoms appear near our reproductive organs, that’s genital herpes.  And when we talk about the different stages of herpes, we’re referring to that form.
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It’s important for everyone to have accurate herpes information in this day and age.  Way back before the sexual revolution changed all the rules in this country, people didn’t know much about sexually transmitted diseases.  However, because there was very little sexual activity going on outside of marriage (or at least a lot less than there is these days),  most people didn’t suffer from their lack of knowledge about venereal diseases.  Those days are long gone, and now STDs are something that pretty much everyone has to know about.  Unfortunately, there’s a lot of false herpes information out there.
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Herpes blisters are one of the first signs of an outbreak of this rapidly spreading STD.   But many people, when they first notice the blisters, don’t make the connection between the small bumps and the actual incident where they contracted the disease.  That’s because there is usually a lag of quite a few days, even up to a couple of weeks, between the actual infection and the appearance of the herpes blisters.  In addition to the blisters, the skin may have a reddish tint, and it may be slightly or extremely sensitive to touch.
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What is herpes type 1?  What does it do?  Does it cause genital herpes?  What’s the difference between it and the other types of herpes?  These are some of the most common questions people have about herpes type 1, and if you’re one of them, you’re not alone.  There is a lot of confusion abroad when it comes to the topic of herpes, and most people couldn’t tell you the difference between type 1 herpes and type 2, or which one generally causes cold sores and which one usually is responsible for genital herpes.  But we’ll answer all those questions in this article, and you’ll get the answers you need.
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Herpes and pregnancy can be a very dangerous combination, and every woman who is still of child bearing age needs to know about the problem and the risks involved.  I want to point out right up front that while the risk to a baby who contracts herpes through delivery to a mother experiencing and outbreak are very high, and can even be fatal, it is actually pretty rare.   This is not meant to be a scare article, but simply to present information that every potential mother needs to know about herpes and pregnancy.
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Oral herpes, commonly known as herpes in the mouth, is a caused by the herpes simplex virus, which million and million of people carry in their bodies, even if they don’t know it.  If you’ve ever had a cold sore, or had a friend or family member who suffered from cold sores, that was one form that herpes in the mouth can take.  Technically, visible cold sores aren’t actually inside the mouth in most cases, but somewhere just outside, like above the lip.  But it’s still considered to be oral herpes.  Not only are cold sores unattractive, they can also be quite painful.  And people who get them tend to get them over and over again.
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Do you know how to tell if you’re suffering from male genital herpes?  You really need to know for sure in order to stay as healthy as possible, and enjoy a long and happy love life.  Some men will freely admit to themselves that they don’t really know how to spot herpes, even if they wouldn’t say so publicly.  Don’t laugh – many men think they know all about herpes, but they have some really erroneous ideas about the symptoms.  Millions of men think that male genital herpes means oozing blisters or sores in their private areas.  Well, that’s often part of the story, but those certainly aren’t the first indications of the disease.
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Not a lot of people are aware of it, but eye herpes (also known as ocular herpes) is a common health condition that anyone can contract.  The vast majority of people have never heard of this malady, but it’s actually pretty common.  Most people, of course, have heard the word herpes before and they tend to think of it as a sexually transmitted disease that affects genital areas.  But that’s only one form of the many different herpes viruses that are out there that people need to know about.  Cold sores around the mouth are another ailment that can be caused by the various kinds of herpes, and ocular herpes is another one.
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Female herpes is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the United States.  Don’t get the wrong idea – man can get genital herpes, too.  Millions of them have the virus.  But the infection is about twice as common in women as it is in men.  Doctors and researchers don’t entirely understand the reason for this huge disparity, but they believe the main reason is that herpes, like many other STDs, is more easily transmitted from a man to a woman than from a woman to a man, due to our differing anatomical structures.  While the reasons for the huge numbers of cases of female herpes may be in dispute, the facts aren’t.  The Center for Disease Control has spent millions of dollars and several years compiling the statistics.  Every year they update their files and websites with the latest figures, which anyone can check for themselves.  There is some good news, however – the number of women with herpes seems to be decreasing lately.
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Everyone who is sexually active needs to be able to spot the first sign of herpes in themselves and in anyone they’re being intimate with, or planning on being intimate with.  You can save yourself a lot of unpleasantness and heartache down the road by keeping yourself free from herpes infection.  And if you’ve already got it, you can significantly reduce the severity and frequency of outbreaks by spotting it early, because rapid treatment during the first sign of herpes is the most effective.  Once it progresses, past the initial stage,  the treatments don’t work as well.
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Female genital herpes is a growing health problem for women in the United States and other parts of the world.  It was only a few short decades ago that most people had never heard of herpes, and didn’t have any idea what it was.  It was only in the late 1970s that word about this increasingly common STD began to get out, and it was well into the 1980s before the average person in America became familiar with the new term.  Since then the virus has multiplied exponentially and we’ve now reached a point where one in five Americans 13 years of age and older has the infection.
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You should never ignore the early signs of herpes, either your own, or those you may spot on a potential sexual partner.  Many people do, for a variety of reasons, but later on they deeply regret not paying more attention to what they shrugged off as nothing to worry about.  Herpes is most definitely not “nothing to worry about”.  It’s a serious sexually transmitted disease, and while it’s not fatal, and usually isn’t as debilitating as syphilis and other STD’s, the consequences are both unpleasant and long lasting.  Yes, it can be treated, and the severity of outbreaks can be reduced, but once you have herpes it will never go away completely.
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Everyone needs to be aware of the different stages of herpes so that they can be on the lookout for symptoms not only in themselves, but also in potential sexual partners.  It’s a sad fact that not everyone is one hundred percent open and honest about their health when it comes to hooking up with others.  And in some cases, it’s not that a person is lying or being less than forthcoming, but it’s simple ignorance.  They may actually have herpes and be unaware of it, or think it’s some sort of benign condition.  By being able to recognize the various stages of herpes, you’ll be better able to both protect yourself from infection, and recognize one if it does occur.
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How much do you know about herpes and signs you might be infected?  If you’re like the average person walking down the street, you probably don’t know much about this rampant disease at all.  Which is perfectly natural, because most people lead very busy lives and don’t really have the time to get acquainted with every possible disease out there, and they figure that if they ever need to learn about this particular STD, they can find out all they need to know.  Some people may vaguely remember some things they learned about the disease in their sex education classes, but that’s about it. If that’s you, here some fact about herpes and signs to look for when you’re infected.
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Where it comes to herpes, are there any differences between male and female symptoms?  Herpes, for being such a widespread disease, is still little understood by the vast majority of people in the world.  They tend to pay no attention to it, or at least very little, until they start wondering if they have somehow contracted it.  Then it becomes a topic of major interest.  Which is understandable, of course.  There’s a lot of things people should know about the disease, and for women it’s especially important to learn about female symptoms.  Herpes is not something you want to leave untreated.
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