Oral (HSV-1) Herpes Symptoms

What Are The Symptoms Of HSV-1?

HSV-1 or oral herpes is a common sexually transmitted disease that nearly every human will come in contact with before they die. It is estimated that by the age of 60, up to 85% of Americans will test positive for Herpes Simplex Virus 1. Common names of oral herpes outbreaks include ‘cold sores’ and ‘fever blisters’

Signs Of Oral Herpes

As mentioned earlier, a lot of men with chlamydia do not experience symptoms. For those that do, however, the symptoms can be intermittent. When the symptoms seemingly go away on their own, many men believe that they no longer have any kind of infection that they need to worry about.

After becoming infected with HSV-1, the human body can take anywhere from 2-12 days to first show signs. Once a herpes infection has blistered up it can take anywhere from 2-6 weeks to clear, and even longer for residual scarring to heal. HSV-1 has a number of possible symptoms, including:

Oral Sores

Oral sores are one of the most painful symptoms of HSV-1 and can occur anywhere near the mouth or in the throat. The lips, tongue, gums, cheek are all viable locations for an oral sore outbreak and depending on the severity of the outbreak you might experience discomfort eating or drinking with open sores.

Oral sores will blister and ooze clear to yellow pus. Often when oral sores affect the throat, they result in a painful sore throat that makes swallowing difficult. Lymph nodes in the neck can also swell as a result of HSV-1.

Genital Sores

HSV-1, commonly referred to as “oral herpes” has recently been acknowledged to affect both the oral and genital region of sufferers. Often times an infection of HSV-1 at the genital site is mischaracterized as HSV-2 when in fact the actual strain causing the infection is HSV-1. Genital soress are surprisingly often caused by HSV-1 and not in fact, HSV-2.

Genital sores caused by HSV-1 will be indistinguishable from genital sores caused by HSV-2. Similarly to oral sores, genital sores will blister and bleed and take between

Pain / Tingling

Often before an infection erupts, you may feel a painful or uncomfortable tingling at the infection site (referred to as a Prodrome). Clusters of pimple-like sores (vesicles) can appear and rapidly reduce to a shallow ulcer site. This painful tingling indicative of infection can occur on the mouth and lips, inside the cheeks and even on the genitals.

Symptoms That Could Be False Positives

Oral herpes sores and their healing process are particularly easy to identify and diagnose, so if you are experiencing open sores please see your healthcare professional or physician as soon as possible. Sometimes harshly chapped lips may resemble a herpes outbreak.

Conversely, mild outbreaks and herpes simplex I symptoms can and do often go misdiagnosed as another skin or rash condition. Severity of outbreaks vary from individual to individual. If you or a sexual partner is experiencing any of these symptoms, you will need to get tested.