Eve Ensler the author of The Vagina Monologues interviewed a diverse group of women, exploring the humor, pain, wisdom, and mystery hidden in vaginas. In recent month’s universities across the country are depicting their own rendition of The Vagina Monologues and are drawing focus on vaginal infections such as vaginal herpes.
If you are a female and can honestly say you have never been kissed or that you have never had sex with anyone, it is possible for you to have contracted a vaginal herpes virus.
Often it's hard to tell by just looking. The textbook symptom of genital herpes is a cluster of small fluid-filled blisters that break, forming painful sores that crust and heal over the course of several days. Areas that may be affected include the penis, scrotum, vagina, vulva, urethra, anus, thighs, and buttocks. However, in the case of vaginal herpes where the lesions are internal, it can be more difficult to recognize symptoms of an infection. Cases of vaginal herpes often go undiagnosed due to the fact that the infection being internal. Lesions that appear on the inside walls of the vagina or around the cervical area can often be overlooked due to the minimal pain they typically cause.
Many people don't get these sores. Some people have no symptoms at all, while others get symptoms that can be easily mistaken for razor burn, pimples, bug bites, jock itch, hemorrhoids, an ingrown hair, urinary tract infection or a vaginal yeast infection. After you're infected, the symptoms go away, but can flare up from time to time. Luckily, the first outbreak usually is the worst. Some people may have just one or two outbreaks and never another.
Many sexually transmitted diseases have vaginal sores associated with them. Vaginal herpes is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections associated with these vaginal sores. Those with vaginal herpes will often experience blisters and itching in association with a vaginal herpes infection.
To be properly tested, a doctor may take a sample from what appears to be a herpetic lesion and examine it under a microscope. You can also have a blood test. The blood test looks for antibodies to the virus that your immune system would have made when you were infected. HSV-2 almost always infects the genitals, so if antibodies to HSV-2 are detected in your blood, you probably have genital herpes. A blood test that shows antibodies to HSV-1 means you could have genital or oral herpes. That's because oral herpes, typically caused by HSV-1, can be spread to the genitals during oral sex.
The only full proof method of avoiding vaginal herpes is to abstain from sex or have sex only with someone who is also herpes-free. Short of that, a latex condom offers some protection if it covers the infected area. You can get vaginal herpes by receiving oral sex from a partner who has a cold sore on the mouth. Likewise, you can get oral herpes from your partner’s genitals by way of oral sex.
If you know that a sex partner has genital herpes, you can reduce your risk of contracting vaginal herpes by having sex (intercourse) only when he or she has no symptoms. Vaginal herpes can be contagious even when there are no visible symptoms.
Vaginal herpes is not life threatening itself. But having herpes sores makes it easier for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to enter your body. Not only is there an increased risk for getting HIV if you have genital herpes, but having the two diseases together may also make each one worse since both thrive on challenged immune systems.
A pregnant woman can pass herpes on to her baby if she has an active vaginal herpes outbreak at the time of delivery. Vaginal herpes is particularly serious during pregnancy. If you get infected near the end of pregnancy, the risk is highest. As little as thirty percent and as many as fifty percent of newly infected pregnant women do pass the virus to their babies. For expectant mothers who were infected long before delivery, the risk is much lower. Less than one percent of babies born to mothers with an older vaginal herpes infection get the virus. And if a woman has an outbreak at delivery, a cesarean deliver usually is performed.
Vaginal herpes is a lifelong condition for which there is no cure. Having vaginal herpes can force you to make inconvenient changes in your life; particularly in your sex life. If untreated and proper measures are not taken to control the vaginal herpes virus, it can cause you a lot of pain and discomfort.
Though The Vagina Monologues lends humor to the focus of the many aspects and pains associated with the vagina, vaginal herpes is no joking matter. Vaginal herpes may not be a serious life-threatening virus, but it is a virus that requires responsible actions on the part of the person infected.