Hey guys,
I believe I was recently exposed to Gen. Herpes. I just signed in to the forum and have some questions so heres my story. I had recently broken
on July 7th with a girl whose status is unknown (said negative, but has lied to me before about other things). I am un-circumsized and a few days after I took a shower and noticed my foreskin was very red. The next day I could see red blotches and small bumps. There were about 7 on the foreskin and 2 or 3 on the head
was tingling and burning a little bit. Not too bad, but enough to bother me throughout the day and make me itch it once in awhile. A few days later I noticed two small papercut like slits on my lower lip
, not in the corner but on the outside. Never had anything like this before in my life. Then i got a cold sore on my inner lower gum, not on the outside. This confused me because I had not gone down on her. I went to a walk-in clinic where the doctor looked at it and seem like he didnt really know, but said its worth getting a herpes test if im worried. I got tested for the IGM 13 days after my possible exposure, test came back "Negative". About a week later (3 weeks after my possible exposure) I had an HIV scare because I started feeling sensory loss (aka Periphreal Nueropathy) in my right foot. It got worse for about a week and then could feel it in my hands and a little in my left foot. It hasn't spread much since then but I can still feel it in my right foot a lot (mostly when i get out of bed in the morning and stand up) but then it is gone after that. After doing a few HIV tests including the PCR or PVR, im not too sure what it was called after a month they said I was Negative and I am good. I was still nervous because my body did not feel the same so I went and got another Herpes test done. I got the IGM and IGG test done exactly 6 1/2 weeks after my possible exposure. The IGG test came back "Negative" and the IGM came back at a 3.24 which I was told was decently high. I don't know what to take from this. I do not have health insurance so I was going through a online testing site. They said on the phone that it is most likely I have genital herpes because of the symptoms I have explained to them, even though my IGG test came back Negative! Worrying about it a lot I did on-line research and heard the IGM test is not very accurate but people still do it! I called another testing site today and spoke with there receptionist and told her i was interested in taking another IGG test and ask them about test windows. They had said that the IGM test can detect the disease or the antibodies from a few days to about 6 weeks. The IGG would be 6 weeks till whenever. What should I take from these test results? I am going to get tested in another week which would make it 10 weeks (I know i should wait till 16, but another IGG test hopefully will give me some piece of mind). My penis still stings a littler bit but not when I urinate at all. It is very shiny/silvery on the foreskin and my penis head looks sick/white and different and gets a lot of creases on it now. Like if i go to urinate I will notice a few indentations on it from maybe my jeans or something, very weird. Thanks for listening out there guys. Hope you can help me with my questions!
1. What should I take from these tests. Does the high IGM positive (3.24) mean I have been exposed (even with the negative result after 2 weeks) or should I trust the IGG test for now?
2. Can Gen. Herpes cause sensory loss (aka. the loss of feeling in my foot, tingling in my hands)?
3.Could the Gen. Herpes cause the cuts on my lip and the cold sore? (related)
4. I have been tested Negative for all other STD's, could this be a fungal/bacterial infection causing the silvery shiny foreskin and head?
save your money and skip the testing in another week. If you retest at all, wait and test at the 3 month post encounter point and of course only get the igg.
your symptoms do not sound like herpes going on genitally. it really sounds more like balanititis or even a fungal infection.
I'm a huge fan of the online testing sites when used appropriately but in your case, you would've saved a lot of money and benefited from being seen when you had symptoms by a medical provider instead of ordering up testing. You could've had faster answers and saved yourself a lot of money.
since you don't have insurance, have you contacted your local health department to know what your local low cost/no cost options are? also many regular gp's will give you a discounted price when paying with cash too. it's worth asking around about.