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Dermatology (Expert Forum)
Neverending herpes recurrences
Answered by
Alan Rockoff, MD - dermatology, Child Skin Problems
The Rockoff Dermatology Center
Brookline - MA
Welcome to the DERMATOLOGY FORUM! Questions in this forum are answered by Dermatologists from St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, under the direction of Andrew Alexis, M.D., M.P.H.
Neverending herpes recurrences
by peterwabbbbit, Apr 30, 2008 03:33PM
I really need help with a desperate situation that doctors have been unable to help me with for 13 month now. 13 months ago three small sores appeared in my groin within a few days of each other. One was a white soft fleshy bump on the head of my penis. The other two were red pimples - one on the left side of my pubic hair region and the other on the right hand side of my pubic hair region. The sores were swabbed 1 week after they appeared and came back negative for herpes. I have also come back negative for all other STDs. Since then I have gotten pimples popping up every few days. No more than 13 days has ever passed without a new pimple. The pimples are almost always isolated single pimples, popping up in different areas, completely painless. Except for a small number of them that have had puss in them they have no liquid in them. About 20% of them have had trapped ingrown hairs inside, the others have not. Two of them have been at the top of the shaft of the penis (which is not a hair-bearing area). The doctors keep saying they do not think it is herpes at all. I managed to convince one doctor to give me valtrex 1 mg daily. I have been taking it for almost 7 months and it has not reduced the recurrences at all. Every so often the skin on my scrotum or penis shaft gets sensitive and sore. I believe I have transferred the herpes to my face as every few weeks I now get a vicious looking single puss filled pimple on my cheek below my nose, or sore peeling skin on the corner of my lips. My lower legs get very itchy/sore, my knuckles get something like eczema. I am terrified of getting a blood test and having a diagnosis confirmed. I know that a positive diagnosis for HSV2 doesn’t necessarily mean I have genital herpes, or if I do that these symptoms are herpes related. I cannot live like this. Please help.
Doctor's Answer
by Alan Rockoff, MD, May 01, 2008 05:21AM
, May 01, 2008 05:21AMTo: peterwabbbit
You do not have herpes. Your condition does not sound like herpes. It does not look like herpes to the doctors who see it. It does not respond to herpes treatment. Yet you are "terrified of getting a blood test and having a diagnosis confirmed." And you say you "believe I have transferred the herpes to my face." In other words, you cannot be convinced that your herpes obsession has no basis in fact.
When patients tell me tey have bumps with us and trapped hairs in them, it means they are picking and squeezing them, because otherwise they couldn't know what was inside. Please stop picking and squeezing your skin, and get the psychological help you clearly need to get over worrying about a disease you do not have.
Thank you.
Dr. Rockoff
When patients tell me tey have bumps with us and trapped hairs in them, it means they are picking and squeezing them, because otherwise they couldn't know what was inside. Please stop picking and squeezing your skin, and get the psychological help you clearly need to get over worrying about a disease you do not have.
Thank you.
Dr. Rockoff
