STDs With Facial Symptoms

Nobody wants to fall victim to a sexually transmitted disease. In fact, very few people want to even talk about them, but it pays to keep one’s self educated on how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and how to spot the signs and symptoms of various ones. Many of us may think, well, if I ever got one, it would be a very private matter and nobody would ever find out. Think again. There are a slew of sexually transmitted diseases that make themselves visible on the one spot on your body that EVERYBODY has to look at: your face.

Consider this…genital herpes does not always stay on the genitals. It can convey itself as cold sores around your mouth. There are two viruses that cause genital herpes: HSV-1 and HSV-2. In fact, up to 45 million people in the United States alone are afflicted with genital herpes. What is scary is that up to 80 percent of them do not even realize they have genital herpes because either a) they mistake the symptoms for something else or b) they may never even display symptoms. Add that to the fact that the virus can be spread from person to person even when the afflicted person is not showing any symptoms and it is no wonder it has spread so rapidly. The virus can be spread through kissing and oral sex, so if somebody who has a cold sore caused by herpes, they can spread herpes to somebody they perform oral sex on. While there are medications to control the symptoms of herpes, there is no cure so it is a life-long affliction. Kissing a person who has the HSV-1 infection or performing oral sex on somebody who has HSV-1 genital herpes can lead to cold sores in the mouth area.

The same things goes for syphilis which can also display itself as sizable open sores in the lip and mouth area. Treponema pallidum bacterium is what causes syphilis. It is spread through sexual contact with anybody who has these lesions caused by syphilis. Within three to six weeks of contact, the afflicted person usually develops these lesions in their genital area. The secondary symptoms can show up anywhere up to 10 weeks after these lesions appear if the person who was afflicted does not get treatment. Fortunately, syphilis can be easily treated with antibiotics. If somebody performs oral sex on a person who has syphilis, primary symptoms can show up on one’s lips, tongue or mouth as sizable sores. Secondary symptoms can include a raised rash around the mouth area (as well as other parts of the body).

Other sexually transmitted diseases like Chlamydia can appear on one’s face, so it is important that everybody gets educated on the various sexually transmitted diseases and how they show up as symptoms. In addition, talking to one’s partner openly and freely about their sexual pasts, including any encounters with STDs will help put both your minds at ease, no matter how awkward or uncomfortable the opening to that conversation may be. Finally, the consistent and correct use of condoms will keep you free from many STDs and is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to safeguard the health of you and your partner.