Dr. Hilary Baldwin, clinical instructor of Dermatology at New York University Medical Center in New York and a specialist in genital herpes, emphasizes that the disease is treatable.
"It's difficult to treat because it's a viral disease, not bacterial," Dr. Baldwin said in a recent interview. "It hides in the ganglia of the nerve root where there's no blood supply. The ganglia are avascular (having no or few blood vessels.) Therefore, the infection cannot be treated until an outbreak occurs."
When asked if there are carriers, people who have it without knowing it, Dr. Baldwin stated that eighty percent of the people who have genital herpes are either not aware of what they have or don't know they have the infection at all. Some who do suffer from the symptoms have no idea what they have and never go for treatment because the outbreak does eventually disappear. Others have no symptoms whatsoever.
Some people never go for treatment because of the stigma attached to the disease. They think it only happens to people who are promiscuous. This is wrong because anyone can contract herpes. Dr. Baldwin says she has treated everyone from CEOs of major companies to young teens after their first sexual experience.
"I had one patient," she says, "who was a seventy-two-year old woman who had never had sex with anyone but her husband and he had been dead for twenty-five years. Somewhere in the past, one of them had contracted the disease, and she had had it all this time without realizing what was wrong."
The good news is that, thanks to learning more about the disease and finally, with the help of a reliable doctor, Gina has her life back on track. She is again pursuing her goal of a career in law enforcement and hopes to graduate this year. She is also hoping to eventually marry and have children. "It's quite safe," Gina told me. "There's no danger to the baby unless the mother is having an outbreak at the time of birth."
Every attempt is made to prevent the occurrence of an outbreak as the time of birth approaches. However, if an outbreak should occur, then the baby is delivered by Cesarean section to avoid the inflamed birth canal.
It's important for people to learn to recognize genital herpes and get treatment as soon as possible. Many sources list the main symptom as blisters around the genital area. However, this is misleading. Often these blisters, especially on a woman, are small and barely noticeable.
Symptoms vary greatly from person to person and may include any or all of the following:
- Itching or burning in the genital area.
- Pain in the legs and buttocks.
- Discharge from the vagina.
- Sores in and around the genital area.
- Sores in the urinary tract that may cause painful urination.
- High fever
- Headache
- Swollen glands in the groin area
- General feeling of malaise.
Some cases of genital herpes can be avoided with a bit of caution. If you have herpes, avoid any sexual contact during an outbreak. And, to reduce the chances of contracting the disease, as with all sexually transmitted diseases, use a condom.
Another interviewee said, "If you have a cold sore and then engage in oral sex, you can transmit the disease and give your partner herpes simplex one. I remember seeing a story about it and how, until a doctor told a couple about it, a marriage almost was destroyed. (The wife, who had a cold sore, performed oral sex on her husband and gave him the disease. He, in turn, gave it back to her as genital herpes and they both were convinced the other had been cheating and were thinking of divorce.)
For an excellent article on genital herpes, read this article:
What You Need to Know About Genital Herpes
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