First outbreak

Genital herpes symptoms tend to reappear from time to time, but the good news is that for most patients they are never again as severe or long lasting as they were the first time.

The reason that the symptoms get less severe after their first appearance is simple: your body uses the first outbreak to produce antibodies that fight back against subsequent recurrences.

Even though the first episode can be quite long and severe, it may still be hard to identify the underlying problem as herpes. You may have flu-like symptoms such as fever and generalised aches and pains as well as genital symptoms.

On the other hand, somewhere around half the people who have symptoms will develop painful blisters like cold sores that burst and take about 10 days to heal.

In other cases the first symptoms may be so mild they are barely noticeable. If you have a very minor first episode, you are unlikely to have many outbreaks later or ever be troubled by severe symptoms again.