Genital herpes (GH) is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV), which manifests as recurrent blisters or vesicles in the genital or perianal area, often with a tingling or prickly sensation. When humans are infected with the disease, HSV forms latent in the local ganglia and is later reactivated when autoimmunity decreases, resulting in clinical onset. The latent virus cannot be eradicated, so GH is still spreading in the population and the number of cases is increasing. How do you determine if you have GH? GH is usually transmitted by sexual contact, such as the appearance of clusters of small blisters on the genitals or adjacent areas after non-marital sexual contact, which soon form vesicles, accompanied by itching or pain. This is typical GH, and the initial diagnosis is mostly made based on the clinical presentation. However, many patients do not have typical blisters, some have only a small amount of vesicles, or recurrent papules or fissures, and some do not even show any signs. Currently, there are two main types of GH laboratory tests, pathogenic tests and serological tests. For patients with suspicious lesions, pathogenic tests can be performed on the lesions to determine whether they are infected with HSV. For patients without clinical lesions, serological tests can be chosen, and if HSV-2 antibodies are detected in the serum, then GH is basically confirmed, but if only HSV-1 antibodies are positive, it is difficult to determine whether GH is present, because HSV-1 mostly causes herpes simplex in the mouth and lips, but 10-30% of GH patients are caused by HSV-1, and this rate is gradually increasing.