Genital Acne

While doctors recognize the ease with which bacteria can grow in the area around the genitals, a physician can seldom come quickly to the conclusion that any patient has genital acne. A number of the sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) cause various skin abnormalities. Some of those abnormalities resemble at least one symptom of genital acne.

A physician who has had a patient present with a skin condition on his or her genitals would need to rule out the possibility that the same patient had an STD. Not every STD creates skin problems in the region of the genitals, but some do. In stage 2 of Syphilis, for example, the patient exhibits a skin rash. A patient with Chancroid has small bumps in the genital region. Those bumps resemble the papules that can develop in genital acne.

While Syphilis and Chancroid are not a problem for a sizeable number of people in present-day society, Herpes is a much more common STD. A patient with Herpes develops small, red papules on his or her genitals. A doctor can not assume that papules are evidence of acne, when the patient could in fact have Herpes. If not treated properly, those papules could blister, and eventually become open sores. It is important to find a natural herpes treatment that is effective.

Diagnosis and genital acne treatment is made even more difficult by the fact that any person can have more than one STD at the same time. Moreover, a patient who has been "cured" of one STD might later walk into the doctor's office with a different STD. Finally, the physician knows that treatment for a bout of STD symptoms does not end chances that those same symptoms might return at some point in the future.

At certain stages of the various STDs, the affected patient shows no symptoms. A sexually active patient might have contact with an organism that can cause an STD, and might not realize that that had occurred. All of the above factors add to the difficulties that confront a physician who has a patient with symptoms that could be either a serious STD or a case of genital acne.