Micks E, et al. - Researchers investigated the effect of female sex hormones on herpes simplex virus (HSV)-2 shedding and lesion frequency via studying HSV-2 seropositive women who performed daily genital swabbing for HSV DNA and completed diaries for genital lesions and menses. Outcomes suggest higher HSV-2 DNA detection in the follicular phase of the cycle than the luteal phase in 189 women with genital HSV-2 infection who are not using hormonal contraception. The 2 menstrual phases were similar in terms of lesion frequency. They identified no influence of hormonal contraception use on genital HSV-2 DNA detection or lesions.