Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
STDs (Expert Forum)
Both of us are confused with possitive herpes result.
Answered by
University of Washington
Seattle - WA
This forum does not cover AIDS/HIV issues. This forum is for questions and support regarding STD issues such as: Chlamydia, Crabs (pubic lice scabies), Gonorrhea, Hepatitis (viral), Herpes, HPV, Molluscum Contagiosum, PID, Rectal Infections, Syphilis, Trichomonas, Warts, Yeast Infection.
IMPORTANT
This forum is limited to questions about STDs other than HIV/AIDS. For questions about HIV prevention, or if you have general questions about safe sex (e.g., condoms, how to protect yourself from HIV and STDs), please visit the HIV Prevention and Safe Sex Forum
Some of the most common types of questions concern the risk of HIV or STD after a particular sexual exposure, and about symptoms that might or might not be due to HIV. If your question is along these lines, please visit the HIV Prevention and Safe Sex Forum.
This forum is limited to questions about STDs other than HIV/AIDS. For questions about HIV prevention, or if you have general questions about safe sex (e.g., condoms, how to protect yourself from HIV and STDs), please visit the HIV Prevention and Safe Sex Forum
Some of the most common types of questions concern the risk of HIV or STD after a particular sexual exposure, and about symptoms that might or might not be due to HIV. If your question is along these lines, please visit the HIV Prevention and Safe Sex Forum.
Both of us are confused with possitive herpes result.
by scmcgo, Mar 08, 2006 12:00AM
I am a 45 year old male. Two weeks ago I suddenly had a sharp burning during urination at the very end of my penis. No other symptoms at all. At first I thought it may be a flare up of my prostititis that is diet sensitive. Since I had no other prostrate symptoms (blood, lower back ache) I got concerned and went to a walk in clinic. The doctor ran a urine culture that showed white blood cells but nothing else. She also swabbed for culture tests and sent them off. The first cultures came back positive for haemophilus and I was put on Levaquin. While I thought it a strange infection in a strange place, I was relieved at a treatable diagnosis. A few days later the last culture came back and was positive for herpes simplex (no differentiation between 1 and 2). I almost died. You can imagine the emotions going through me up to the point I informed my wife of 18 years. I have been 100% true to my wife and I believe her when she says the same. I have absolutely no reason to suspect her of outside contact.
The obvious question is, How Can This Be? To my knowledge, I have never had any herpes symptoms, nor has my wife except for the occasional mouth sore. We obviously do not use protection within our relationship. Where and/or when could this exposure happen and why has it shown up in me now? Could the virus have been unnoticed in us for a protracted period? If so, could my pain have been from the haemophilus infection and not a herpes outbreak, meaning, am I just now finding out about the herpes because they happened to test for it along with everything else?
Both of us are trying to get our hands around this situation. We are wondering if we would have been tested for herpes as part of other work in the past (prostititis, marriage, surgery, pregnancy, etc.) or is herpes testing only done to diagnose specific symptoms? This would help us know if there was a time we knew we did not have the virus.
I know I have a bunch of questions above so answer these only if you can, as I think I know the answers anyway. In the grasping for straws category - months ago I sat on a toilet in a theme park restroom and the end of my penis went into the water, and, my wife has had extensive testing and surgeries in the last half year centered around parathyroid problems and subsequent complications. Could either of these events have a bearing on our predicament?
Thank you in advance for your time.
The obvious question is, How Can This Be? To my knowledge, I have never had any herpes symptoms, nor has my wife except for the occasional mouth sore. We obviously do not use protection within our relationship. Where and/or when could this exposure happen and why has it shown up in me now? Could the virus have been unnoticed in us for a protracted period? If so, could my pain have been from the haemophilus infection and not a herpes outbreak, meaning, am I just now finding out about the herpes because they happened to test for it along with everything else?
Both of us are trying to get our hands around this situation. We are wondering if we would have been tested for herpes as part of other work in the past (prostititis, marriage, surgery, pregnancy, etc.) or is herpes testing only done to diagnose specific symptoms? This would help us know if there was a time we knew we did not have the virus.
I know I have a bunch of questions above so answer these only if you can, as I think I know the answers anyway. In the grasping for straws category - months ago I sat on a toilet in a theme park restroom and the end of my penis went into the water, and, my wife has had extensive testing and surgeries in the last half year centered around parathyroid problems and subsequent complications. Could either of these events have a bearing on our predicament?
Thank you in advance for your time.
Doctor's Answer
by H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D., Mar 08, 2006 12:00AM
, Mar 08, 2006 12:00AM
It would be good to know for sure what herpes test was done. If it was a culture test (i.e., the virus was actually grown in the laboratory), then you can consider it 100% reliable. But if it was a fluorescent antibody (FA) test, there is a slight chance of a false positive result. I raise this because the FA tests do not distinguish HSV-1 from HSV-2, but culture usually does.
Assuming the test is accurate, the most likely explanation is that you are chronically infected, almost certainly with HSV-2. A quarter of the US population has genital HSV-2 infection and 90% do not know it--so in that way, your case is typical. Another possibility is that your wife has been infected all along, and the virus only recently was transmitted to you. In neither case, there is no reason to assume other sex partners are involved; either way, at least one of you (probably both) most likely have been infected since before your marriage, from some distant sex partner. Nobody ever caught herpes from a public toilet; that never happens. Sex is the only way the virus is transmitted. And your wife's surgery and parathyroid problems are unrelated.
Of course, as an STD specialist I have to raise the other obvious possibility, that one or the other of you in fact has had another partner and only recently brought herpes into your life. I'm taking you at your word that that possibility is unlikely--but you are in a much better position to know than I am.
You and your wife should both see a provider who knows herpes well. Some family medicine docs and dermatologists fall into that category; or find an infectious diseases specialist. You both should have blood tests for HSV-1 and HSV-2. (Most likely your infection is HSV-2.) Most likely, both will be positive. Do that promptly. If either of you is negative, that person can be re-tested in 3 months to see if the result becomes positive, a sign of recently acquired infection. But if both of you have positive results, you will never know who was infected first or when it occurred.
But the bottom line is don't worry about it. When permanently monogamous couples have herpes, there no longer is any risk of transmission back and forth; and you both likely will remain without significant symptoms for the rest of your lives. And in the event you (or she) develop recurrent symptoms, effective treatment is available either to speed healing or prevent outbreaks. It really should not be a terribly big deal for you.
For more information about genital herpes, see the article on herpes in the link at the top of the STD Forum (STD Quick Facts and Articles); or visit the American Social Health Association (www.ashastd.org) or CDC (www.cdc.gov/std).
Good luck-- HHH, MD
Good luck-- HHH, MD
Assuming the test is accurate, the most likely explanation is that you are chronically infected, almost certainly with HSV-2. A quarter of the US population has genital HSV-2 infection and 90% do not know it--so in that way, your case is typical. Another possibility is that your wife has been infected all along, and the virus only recently was transmitted to you. In neither case, there is no reason to assume other sex partners are involved; either way, at least one of you (probably both) most likely have been infected since before your marriage, from some distant sex partner. Nobody ever caught herpes from a public toilet; that never happens. Sex is the only way the virus is transmitted. And your wife's surgery and parathyroid problems are unrelated.
Of course, as an STD specialist I have to raise the other obvious possibility, that one or the other of you in fact has had another partner and only recently brought herpes into your life. I'm taking you at your word that that possibility is unlikely--but you are in a much better position to know than I am.
You and your wife should both see a provider who knows herpes well. Some family medicine docs and dermatologists fall into that category; or find an infectious diseases specialist. You both should have blood tests for HSV-1 and HSV-2. (Most likely your infection is HSV-2.) Most likely, both will be positive. Do that promptly. If either of you is negative, that person can be re-tested in 3 months to see if the result becomes positive, a sign of recently acquired infection. But if both of you have positive results, you will never know who was infected first or when it occurred.
But the bottom line is don't worry about it. When permanently monogamous couples have herpes, there no longer is any risk of transmission back and forth; and you both likely will remain without significant symptoms for the rest of your lives. And in the event you (or she) develop recurrent symptoms, effective treatment is available either to speed healing or prevent outbreaks. It really should not be a terribly big deal for you.
For more information about genital herpes, see the article on herpes in the link at the top of the STD Forum (STD Quick Facts and Articles); or visit the American Social Health Association (www.ashastd.org) or CDC (www.cdc.gov/std).
Good luck-- HHH, MD
Good luck-- HHH, MD
HHH, MD
HHH, MD