Female Genital Herpes vs. Impetigo

Nanci Elliott — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:32:09 +0000

Many, many years ago I was called in the middle of the night by the younger sister of a good friend who was sure she had just discovered herself with female genital herpes. After talking to her about the blisters, I too was convinced she had genital herpes (at 21 with zero medical training, what else could it be?!), and I talked to her for over an hour about what it was like to live with female genital herpes. I felt bad for her because she was just 16 – one year younger than I was when I was diagnosed and I remember being glad that I had already lived through several years of herpes, had already told one two? (who can remember..) people before having sex with them, and had basically learned to live with herpes.

I had not quite yet learned to love my body or worship sex but I’ll save that for a future post.

But I was over the moon for her when a few days later she called to say she did not have genital herpes. What she did have was impetigo.

And what is impetigo?

If you find yourself with blisters on your genitals (vagina, anus, labia – surrounding area..) it is quite possible that while you might have genital herpes, it is very possible that you might have something quite different. Here we will compare HSV2 with impetigo.

Female Genital Herpes

Genital herpes is a virus and impetigo is a bacterial infection. If you don’t know the difference between a virus and a bacteria, I suggest you do quick check on Google. There are two bacteria that cause impetigo: Staph and Strep (I know they have big fat long medical names, but for the point of this post – it’s staph and strep for me…) Yes, that would be the same *strep* as strep throat (the little bugger gets around).

Strep bacteria causes redness, clusters of blisters or sores that burst and form a yellowish brown crust (sound familiar?), while staph bacteria tend to produce larger blisters or sores that are filled with fluid but do not burst. Here is the kicker: Impetigo is itchy but it is not painful. I can tell you from experience that vaginal herpes hurts. Not always a lot. But it does hurt. Sore, painful, burning – not just itchy. As impetigo is caused by common bacteria, is quite contagious, and usually starts with a simple scratch, it is very possible to find yourself with impetigo on your genitals. But (very important!) herpes will 99.99% of the time heal itself. It is a virus that is living out a life cycle (as an outbreak) and as it dies, the herpes sores will heal. Impetigo will not go away or heal without anti-biotics. And in many cases, untreated it will get worse and spread to other parts of your body. Like, fast.

Good news for impetigo: once treated, you are done with it. Word. Bad news for the rest of us on the team: Herpes will be back. So there you go.

See a Doctor. Get tested. Seek treatment. Enjoy life.

Vaginal Herpes

Nanci Elliott — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:30:38 +0000

Just a quick post to let you know that vaginal herpes is not different from any other form of herpes. All herpes viruses come from the herpes simplex virus of which there are two types. I know this is shocking but they are actually called Herpes Simplex 1 (HSV1) and Herpes Simplex 2 (HSV2). While it is possible for either virus to appear on either the mouth or genital region, the vast majority, experience HSV1 on the mouth (yes, all cold sores are HSV1 – don’t listen to people who say, “It’s just a cold sore, not herpes.” At this point it’s your call whether to kindly suggest they seek out any medical dictionary or reference literature), and HSV2 in the genital region. This would be female genital herpes, vaginal herpes, vagina herpes, HSV2 – we can come up with many names but it’s all the same.

You don’t need to spend a lot of time (like I did) searching the internet for scary pictures or evil herpes experiences. It’s not the end of the world. And sometimes, because of what genital herpes can teach you about yourself, it’s the beginning of something great.

Vaginal Herpes

UPDATE (May 11, 2010):

I received a complaint (see comments below) that I would use the term, “vaginal herpes”, and that somehow I was suggesting that genital herpes comes from women. The author of the comment requested that I change my terminology to, “genital herpes”. Please understand that I in no way attribute any form of herpes as starting or spreading from only women.

I can say that according to Google, over 150 people search the term vaginal herpes every day and like I responded to the author I was attempting to reach this audience and let them know that vaginal herpes is in fact not different from genital herpes. People hear and call it different things and I wanted to set the record straight that female herpes, vaginal herpes, whatever you want to call it is either HSV1 or HSV2. So please don’t misunderstand. I do appreciate any and all comments and welcome your feedback.

You will also note from my responding comment that HSV is nothing to be ashamed of. Women do contract and spread herpes – we are equally as responsible as men for protecting our partners and using effective means (condoms, Valtrex) to stop the spread of HSV and to reduce the rates of herpes transmission.

Take care and be safe!

Nanci

Image Credit: Thomas Hawk

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Female Genital Herpes vs. Impetigo

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Vaginal Herpes