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Herpes?

A little less than a week ago I had sex with my boyfriend who I've been with for about 6 or 7 months. Before dating him I had only had sex with one other person, whose only previous partner had been a virgin. My boyfriend has only had sex with one other person (he stopped having sex with her a year ago, and from what I understand they always used a condom) and she'd had sex with a few other guys, but at that time she was young and dating young guys (14-15 years old). I have never had any symptoms of having an std until a few days ago. The last time we had sex, it was a bit dry, rushed (it didn't go in easily), and fairly rough. I'm a bit small down there and it has never been uncommon for me to be a bit sore after sex, but it never lasts long. I was sore for about 2 or three days, and mentioned it to my boyfriend. When I peed it burned, but more on the outside, not like a urinary tract infection. And it hurt to wipe. I used a mirror to look and the only thing I noticed was that it seemed like I had cut the edge of my vagina (like, the outside of the hole. I'm not too good with anatomy.) towards the bottom, and it was sore at the top as well. I figured that the sex, being as painful as it was, may have stretched it out a bit leaving a wound. The next day or so, I felt a bump down there and attributed it to irritation from shaving or something as I had just shaved not too long ago.
My boyfriend has had reoccurring staph infections for a few years on his penis, butt, hands, and face. He said that they had tested him to make sure it wasn't herpes, but he believes that was before he'd had sex with his previous girlfriend. He had another outbreak last summer, and didn't finish taking a lot of his meds.  
A few days after we had sex, he noticed a small red bump on the shaft of his penis, he figured it was some kind of irritation, but it spread quickly and he now has multiple small bumps (spread out, not clustered at all). He immediately thought it was staph because it was very similar to what he'd had before, but before it had been on the head so he figured the different kind of tissue would make it look different, as well as how varied staph can be. He immediately came and asked me if I had noticed any bumps down there. I checked again and noticed that there were now a few of them. Seeing as staph is highly contagious, I figured that was what it was. He gave me some Mupirocin ointment to use and said that it should help clear it up, as well as offered me some antibiotics (sulfamethoxazole-tmp) since he hadn't finished them. I used the cream for a day and it seemed to make it less painful if anything. I knew better than to take his antibiotics and didn't want to mess with the risks of staph though so I decided to go to a walk-in clinic. (I go to school out of state and my normal doctor is at home.) By the time I was going to the doctor there were more bumps. They were mainly on the edge and inside of the left side of my labia(?). Some are smaller than others, they're not particularly red, and seem to be a light color on top. They don't look like blisters so much. And the tops of some seem to be open (just a small circle, but I suppose that would be lesions.) and are fairly sensitive. I only noticed one or two bumps on the right side. I went to the walk-in clinic and told them I thought I had staph. As soon as she looked at it, the doctor said it looked like a herpes outbreak to her. I was immediately skeptical because neither my boyfriend or I has ever had any symptoms of any STD, and it seemed odd that we would both have outbreaks all of a sudden, when he would have been carrying it for a year and I've been having sex with him for 6 months. I had never had a pap or any kind of exam down there so she asked if she could go ahead and do one. I complied, and it ended up being very painful around the edge of my vagina where I had believe it to be sore from sex. (The pain had been getting better, but the exam made it get worse.) She said that she thought I had chlamydia as well. She sent tests for both to the labs, and they said it would take a few days. She decided to go ahead and treat me with a one time 4 gram dose of azithromycin for the chlamydia and a weeks worth of acyclovir for the herpes. She said that she really thought it was herpes but that if I wanted to keep using the ointment until the lab results came back, just incase, I could. On the copy of the paper they gave me she wrote that I had a clear, whitish, discharge from my cervix. (I would like to add that i haven't noticed any strange smells.) And she wrote the diagnosis as: 1)vaginal rash- ?herpes or skin irritation 2)cervicitis 3)chlamydia
She didn't seem to waver from her herpes diagnoses until I was on the verge of a panic attack, and then she was like, "It could just be a skin irritation." She seemed pretty sure though.

I immediately went and spoke to my boyfriend. He assured me that he wouldn't lie to me about this and that he has only had sex with one other person (I know him well and I have no reason to not believe him.) He was also at first very worried, but said that he doesn't seem how he could have been going over a year with both herpes and chlamydia and not have experienced any symptoms. I'm well aware that people can be asymptomatic and that people can just be carriers, and that chlamydia can be dormant for a long time. But it does seem awfully coincidental. Also, he believes that he is having a bit of a staph outbreak on the right side of his chin, which he originally thought was just his face breaking out, and was there the last time we had sex. He had gone down on me, which would make sense of why the bumps are mostly on the right side and started at the bottom. Also, if I had an open sore from the sex, it would have made me even more susceptible to getting staph. He realizes it's very possible that it is herpes, but it just seems so unlikely. He is waiting until I get my results to go to the doctor. His penis has not gotten any worse. The red bumps are still there, but he has been using the ointment and I believe, taking some antibiotics. He says that previously using the ointment has always prevented his staph from getting worse and that it keeps it the same until the antibiotics get rid of it.
Over the course of the day, mine seems to have spread a bit as there is more bumps on both sides. This wouldn't seem unreasonable since staph spreads so easily and it's moist and warm down there.
I've looked at every online picture I can find of anything that it could be and while, it does look more like herpes than anything else I could find (I found very few herpes pictures that resembled what I have and those were of healing lesions, were in large clusters, or they were a lot redder.) I had trouble finding pictures of genital staph, or any mild staph for that matter, and it seems to vary a lot. My boyfriend says it looks like it staph to him.

I have never had good experiences with walk-in clinics. They've almost always misdiagnosed me. This doctor seemed to know what she was doing, but was young, and as my boyfriend pointed out, had probably seen a lot more herpes than staph on genitalia. I know I have to wait for the results to know, but an opinion would be greatly appreciated, mostly because I'm driving myself crazy with worrying and googling. The chlamydia doesn't even bother me when I've got the possibility of herpes. I just want to get a better idea so I can deal begin to deal with it if it is herpes as it will change a lot of things.

5 Responses
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101028 tn?1419603004
yes indeed this could be due to herpes. did you call the clinic to see if your herpes test results were back yet?

your bf shouldn't be self treating at this point either. he needs to go and be seen and repeat his herpes igg blood test to see what his status is. he also needs to get testing done to see if indeed he does have  a recurrence of his staph infection back or not.   He also needs to take his infections more seriously and properly treat them. the incidence of MRSA infections is high and not treating them properly can actually lead to needing surgical intervention as well as IV antibiotics in the hospital potentially.  

did they test your vaginal discharge for infections too?

grace
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Avatar universal
My chlamydia test came back negative. So I'm just waiting for the herpes results. It's almost gone, I don't know if that's a result of the acyclovir or the antibiotics I took.
The bumps are healing without scabbing and they never really looked like blisters. I'm driving myself crazy but does that sound like herpes?
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Avatar universal
Mine didn't show up until a few days after we had sex. He noticed it around the same time I did. We haven't had sex since and until this started neither of us had ever had any symptoms or reason to believe we had any STD's.  

As I said, I have not been taking his meds. I have been using the ointment usually prescribed for staph, but the doctor approved that.

I know I have to wait, it's just nice to hear that it's not definitely herpes and that it is so commonly misdiagnosed. (I realize that no one on an online forum can really diagnose that. But I have good reason to think it would be staph and I've been searching for something to give me hope that it is not herpes and that staph can look the same and haven't had much luck.)

Thank you.
Helpful - 0
1174003 tn?1308160819
My first question is how long has this been going on? How long before you had sex did these show up?  Your post was a little long and very descriptive but a little hard to follow with the different things between you and your boyfriend.

First of all your boyfriend should be finishing his meds to deal with the staph infections.  This is how one gets a resistant strain.  So he needs to seek out his doctor and start working out the meds.  You should NOT be taking his meds.  This is so dangerous its not even funny.  This is how damage to your internal organs happens.  So you need to ONLY take what a doctor gives you.  Not your boyfriends he is from the sound in your story not a doctor.  Unless he has a medical degree and a license to practice you should NOT be taking anything he gives you.

If this has been going on longer then 3 weeks it could be staph.  It could be herpes.  Visual diganosis can be wrong and typically is 1/3 of the time.  Even the most trained Herpes expert can't tell the difference.  The test will have to provide the answer.  But given your boyfriends experince he could have it.  I would recommend him being tested for HSV using a IgG blood test to ensure he still does't have herpes and this could provide some answer to you a little sooner.

Untill you get the results you will have to wait.  
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Avatar universal
I wanted to add that none of the bumps have begun to scab or crust, and that there is nothing external except for the bumps/lesions/whatever.
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