How soon after sex can herpes symptoms start?
You had unprotected sex and now you're worried if the escapade may come with consequences. You’re not the first one to wonder how soon symptoms might show up if your worst fears are realized and you picked up herpes infection.
Herpes might not have any symptoms.
The most common herpes symptom are sores on your genitals or mouth. But most of the time there are no symptoms, so lots of people don’t know they have herpes.
You or your partner may not have any herpes symptoms that you can see or feel, or the signs of herpes may be so mild you don’t even notice them. Sometimes people confuse herpes symptoms with other things, like pimples, ingrown hairs, and the flu.
The most important thing to highlight is that herpes infection—tend to be asymptomatic, meaning they don’t cause symptoms. But even if your herpes infection is asymptomatic, you can still infect your partner. You could also be at greater risk for serious complications—everything from arthritis to cancer—if your STD goes untreated. The only way to be sure you’re STD free after an unprotected sexual encounter is to be screened.
Herpes symptoms come and go, but that doesn’t mean the infection goes away or that you can’t spread it to other people. Once you have herpes, it stays in your body for life.
How soon would herpes symptoms show up?
The initial herpes symptoms usually show up 2 to 20 days after you're infected. Ulcers for herpes could occur weeks, months, or even years after exposure. In some cases, ulcer outbreaks can come and go at regular intervals for the remainder of a person’s lifetime.
The first herpes outbreak lasts about 2 to 4 weeks. Even though the blisters go away, the virus stays in your body and can cause sores again. There’s no cure for herpes, but there are drugs that can reduce the frequency and intensity of outbreaks and also reduce the odds you’ll spread herpes to a partner.
Keeping an eye out for symptoms really doesn’t matter much. If you want to be sure you’re STI free, you need to be screened, Ghanem says.
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