• Question: why is herpes easily detected in ladies n not guys

    Asked by solar to Cat, Daz, Holly, Johnson, Pamela on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Darren Braddick

      Darren Braddick answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hi Solar

      Well there are two kinds of herpes, one of which is pretty much ‘equal’ between the sexes (oral herpes), and the other which isn’t (genital herpes). You have to remember that the, erm, structure and biology of genital areas of males and females are remarkably different! For a short answer, the way you detect a viral infection will be quite different, simply because the area of interest are so different!

      I expect I could answer this better if you have any other question about this topic!

      I should also say that herpes is a very strange virus – its highly contagious by contact but what causes it to spring out is very weird. If someone is infected by it, it stays in their body all the time, but only sometimes it shows itself. What triggers it to suddenly show itself is apparently completely random.. ! Very strange.

      Daz

    • Photo: Cat O'Connor

      Cat O'Connor answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hi Solar,

      Like Daz says, it’s Herpes simplex virus (that’s the virus that causes herpes) is a funny one. I’ve once heard that pretty much everyone is infected with the herpes virus because it’s so contagious and is probably transmitted to us as children from close contact with adults who are infected with it….and before you accuse me of saying something I’m not, I of course mean from people who have cold sores!

      But it doesn’t affect people in the same way. So take my family for example: my mom and dad both suffer from cold sores, so it’s pretty likely that both myself and my two sisters were infected as kids. But, only one of us (the middle kid) gets cold sores!

      Another nasty thing about this bug is that you can spread the virus when you are not showing any signs of infection, we call this asymptomatic transmission!

      Hope this adds to Daz’s answer!

      Cat

      😀

    • Photo: Pamela Lithgow

      Pamela Lithgow answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hi Solar,
      Well I didn’t know the answer to this and in some ways I wish I hadn’t looked it up :$
      What I did discover though is that actually genital herpes (mentioned by the others) is actually easier to detect in males not in females often women don’t even realise they have it. As Daz said this is due to the anatomy in the region.
      Hope this clarifies that a little
      Pam 🙂

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