› Forums › Herpes Questions › Myth vs fact › Reply To: Myth vs fact
January 24, 2015 at 11:55 pm
#3237
Terri Warren
Keymaster
I can definitely help you with that question! When people acquire genital herpes through a sexual contact the virus set up shop in the sacral ganglia, which is at the base of the spine. When it decides to re-emerge, and we don’t know why it does exactly, it can travel along any nerve that comes from the sacral ganglia. That nerve group supplies the area of the body from about waist to mid thigh, basically the area covered by a pair of boxer shorts. So it can show up on the genitals, buttocks, abdomen or thigh just by traveling along slightly different nerves to get to the surface of the skin.
Does that help?
Terri