When you first received news of that positive genital herpes test, you were convinced that you’d be doomed to a lifetime of painful genital herpes symptoms. And in the following months, you certainly experienced your share of genital herpes symptoms, including outbreaks of sores and overall genital discomfort. But then, as time went by, your genital herpes symptoms seemed to disappear.
If it’s been months or years since you last experienced symptoms of genital herpes, you may be wondering if the disease is still in your body. But the answer, unfortunately, is yes. Although genital herpes symptoms do tend to show up less frequently over time, the fact of the matter is that once you contract genital herpes, you’ll always be infected (unless, of course, a cure is found). This means that if you have unprotected sex with a new partner, you’ll run the risk of giving that person the disease, even if you’re not experiencing genital herpes symptoms at the time.
Even if your genital herpes symptoms seem to have vanished entirely, it’s best to always use protection during sexual activity once your STD test for genital herpes comes back positive. You may also want to advise your partner to undergo STD testing every so often to make sure he or she hasn’t gotten infected. Condoms are not 100 percent effective at preventing genital herpes transmission; but condom usage does significantly reduce the risk.
