| Will the condition ever"go away"? Once you are infected with the herpes simplex virus, it remains in your body for the rest of your life. Potentially, this means that you could experience further outbreaks at any time for the rest of your life. Fortunately, most people do not experience this type of scenario. In most cases, episodes of genital herpes become less frequent, and much milder as time progresses, and eventually seem to disappear altogether. It is not possible to predict for individual how long this process is likely to take, indeed, for some people the symptoms do not ever completely disappear; but it would be fairly common for such an improvement in symptoms to take several years. If outbreaks seem to disappear, it is important to bear in mind that stress, illness and problems with the immune system can predispose to future outbreaks. This means that in some situations, a person who has not had an outbreak for many years might develop one as a result of developing some other illness later in their life. My partner has genital herpes but I don't: Could I have it without knowing it? It is very common for people to be infected with the herpes simplex virus without being aware. See the answer to Is it possible to have and/or transmit genital herpes without knowing it? How can I find out? If you have never been diagnosed with genital herpes, but from time to time have experienced genital symptoms, such as sores, a rash, itch, lumps, etc, you should see your doctor during an outbreak of these symptoms. They may be a sign of genital herpes. If you have never experienced symptoms, you may still be carrying the virus. There are blood tests available to detect evidence that you have been infected with the virus, but the results must be interpreted with caution. (See "Blood Tests";) |
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