San Jose, CA
A 20-year-old female asked about a 30-year-old male:
My culture just came back positive for genital herpes. how long does it take to have an outbreak? could i have had herpes for a few months before having the outbreak? i was last tested in november.
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
Dr. Hunter Handsfieldanswered
Infectious Disease 54 years experience
Genital herpes: New herpes symptoms usually start 3-5 days after exposure, on rare occasions up to 2-3 weeks. It is very common for the first recognized herpes outbreak to actually be a recurrent outbreak of a longstanding infeciton that previously caused no symptoms. Make sure the virus is typed: it is very important to know whether HSV1 or 2. Genital HSV2 recurs often, HSV1 outbreaks usually uncommon.
65 viewsAnswered Jun 30, 2020
Last updated Sep 2, 2020
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