Diagnosis

Your doctor may suspect that you have genital herpes based on your sexual history, your symptoms and the results of your physical examination. Your doctor may want to confirm the diagnosis by scraping the affected skin area for laboratory testing. Because people who have one type of STD are at risk of others, your doctor may wish to test for other STDs, such as syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Expected Duration

The HSV infection that causes genital herpes is a lifelong illness whose symptoms tend to return periodically. The pattern of recurrence is different for every person.