Herpes possibility?

[med3510]

I'm a gay male who in the past month or so has had unprotected oral sex (both giving and receiving) and protected anal sex (me being the top).  On Friday, I started to notice a chancre or some kind of sore on the top of my penis, right by the opening/urethra.  It hasn't really developed into anything bigger yet, and there is no puss coming from it, also it isn't like a blister either.  So not really sure what it is.  I'm worried it could be a sign of herpes, and so wondered what people's thoughts were?  Could it be herpes or perhaps syphilis?

I am thinking of going tomorrow to get it checked out, but any thoughts beforehand would be greatly received.  Thanks.

[Mistakeguy789]

We aren't going to play the guessing game.  You can follow up with Terri further.  

[med3510]

I posted the question on the doctor's forum and this was Terri Warren's response.  Although she thinks I will be negative too, she is concerned - any thoughts?

I also believe it is very likely that you don't have herpes.  I am concerned by your statement that you had sores on the penis.  You specifically said sores, and there aren't very many things that cause sores on the penis, actually, so that comment still concerns me just a bit.  I am also just very slightly concerned about your relatively high negative value on your HSV 2 antibody test. The last thing I am concerned about is is the STD clinician's opinion that the sores looked herpetic.   I actually also believe that you are negative, but if you were my patient, given the three things described above, I would like to see you get tested once more in about 4-6 weeks, and maybe this time with a western blot if you can get it.  You might not live in the US, in which case, the IgG is fine, but absolutely forget the IgM test.  

My response is very cautious here, admittedly.  There is just something about the contents of your post that give me slight concern.

Terri

[gracefromHHP]

sweetie - go woohoo and stop worrying about this. I think it's time to end this post. I'm not going to play the "what if" game with you. we've already given you the most up to date info on herpes testing and your provider is misinformed by still relying on the herpes igm test. don't waste your time with more igm testing.

[med3510]

Hi there,

Another paranoid question!  The doctor said that the iGM test shows a recent infection.  If that is the case, is it possible that mine is just taking a longer time than normal to show antibodies?  She did say that mine was very borderline however.

Her suggestion was to do the iGM test in another month from the last test.  

I really want to go 'woohoo' on being negative, but still not sure about it.

Thanks

[gracefromHHP]

your testing is fine dear. don't obsess over things you don't need to obsess over!

[med3510]

Thanks Grace for the encouragement.  Is it possible though that's it too early to be sure?  I've read that some people don't test positive until at least 4 months since exposure.  Although also read that 3 months is a good indication.  I was about 3 days short of 3 months.