Other symptoms are pain and burning while urinating, a vaginal discharge, itching, swollen lymph glands, or a slight rash in the genital area. Small, painful red blisters appear on and around the genitals a few days later. This first outbreak of a herpes infection may last two to six weeks. Once the sores are healed, the risk of infecting others during sexual relations is much lower. People with herpes should not have sexual relations during an active outbreak of herpes, not even with the use of condoms.
Women can have sores outside or inside the vagina.
Sores on men can be anywhere on the penis including the foreskin on uncircumcised men, and in the urethra. Both sexes may have sores on the thighs and buttocks as well. Urinating may become painful as the urine passes over the sores. When the blisters are completely healed, the active phase of infection is over, but the herpes virus never leaves the body. It retreats into the nervous system, lies dormant there and can flare up at any time.