Blisters on vagina

My fiancee and I have been engaged for seven months now. We have been sexually active for about five. This last week I got blisters on my vagina, a first I thought it was an ingrown hair of some sort, and that it would go away, but it didn't. Now they have gotten bigger and there is more. I have to go to the restroom alot during the day, but when i go barely anything comes outy, but if i hold it i feel that i will go in my pants. When i go to the restroom it burns to pee. I have also been discharging alot to where my panties feel wet, and it is very uncoftable. I'm scared it might be a sexual disease and I don't know what to do. My fiancee is my first partner, but he has had plenty before me. What should I do?

[Elaine Brown, MD]

HI!
I think you should definitely get in to the doctor!  It sounds like you may have both herpes type 2 and a bladder infection.  If you were my patient, I would also check you for chlamydia, gonorrhea and HPV.  If he has a "past" he has probably acquired some infections along the way, and he may not even realize it.  Often the male partner is not symptomatic, and doesn't mean to infect the female.  There are lots of good medicines to treat the diseases and symptoms, and if you two are going to plan a future together, you should both get everything "cleaned up" and at the same time so that you don't keep re-infecting each other.
Don't worry--1 in 6 Americans has herpes, and 1 in 3 has HPV--in other words, your doctor won't think anything "bad" about you.
Good luck!
Dr B