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Print ArticleGenital Herpes Health Center
Overview & Facts
About one in five U.S. adults and teens have had a genital herpes infection -- and most don’t know it. Learn about the herpes simplex virus and how to lower your risk.
What Is Genital Herpes?
Genital herpes is an infection of the genitals, buttocks, or anal area caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV). Most genital herpes is caused by HSV type 2. Yet as people begin to have sex at younger ages the herpes type 1 virus has increasingly been shown to also cause genital herpes.
Genital herpes is a chronic, lifelong viral infection. At least 50 million persons in the United States have genital HSV infection.
What does herpes do after it enters the body?Some symptoms of primary HSV-2 infection are different from the recurrent symptoms that come later.
Herpes is a recurrent infection. That means the infection never goes away. The symptoms may disappear for awhile, but they come back periodically.
Causes
Genital herpes is a highly contagious infection usually spread through intercourse, but it can be passed through oral or anal sex as well. Learn about it in this sexual health article.
Are You at Risk?
STDs can increase the risk of HIV. People with genital herpes have at least twice the risk of becoming infected with HIV if exposed to it than those without it. Read more about herpes and HIV infection.
One out of four teens in the United States becomes infected with an STD each year and by the age of 25, half of all sexually active young adults will get an STD.
This brief questionnaire will let you know.
Lots of risk factors can increase your risk of genital herpes. Stress, fatigue, and being a woman are herpes risk factors, read more.
Receiving oral sex raises women’s genital herpes risk, a study shows.
Male infants can become infected with the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) after undergoing circumcision that included direct oral-genital contact between the infant and the circumciser. Read more about circumcision and herpes risks.
Prevention
Practicing safe sex by using a condom is just one. Some honesty helps, too.
Getting information on genital herpes is one way to deal with your feelings.
For those whose partners have been infected, answers to some common questions.
Delivering a baby via cesarean section can protect an infant from infection with the herpes simplex virus (HSV). Read more about the recommendations for cesarean section and herpes.
