Possibility that I could have herpes

[ryan286]

Hello,

I am a 24 year old male. I have been seeing an infectious disease specialist for the past few weeks in order to determine the following:

Over the past 4-5 years, I have had unprotected sex with 7 women. 5/7 of these occurrences resulted in some sort of infection that most closely mimics the effects of chlamydia and gonorrhea. In greater detail, the symptoms include mild itchiness near toward the tip of the urethra, frequency of urination, some penile discharge (very apparent in the mornings, but usually hard to notice otherwise), a general feeling of internal discomfort within the urethra (it sort of just feels as if something is crawling around in there), and (very occasional) pain during an erection - this last one I think affects me in that it feels as if the urethra is being stretched and whatever is "crawling" around in there is resisting the stretch. No other symptoms exist.

During each occurrence, I completed urine tests (only two blood tests were done during the first two occurrences) for chlamydia/gonnorrhea, and each test came back negative. The doctors prescribed me doxycycline and/or zithromax and each time the symptoms went away and I felt totally normal a few days afterward and from then on. Each time, the doctor came to some sort of conclusion along the lines of "it was some sort of bacterial infection we don't normally test for". Well, it's come back again, this time with a serious girlfriend, and I really want to determine what the heck this is. My honest best guess is that I am just simply allergic to a female's private parts, but every doctor laughs it off, probably rightly so.

The infectious disease specialist I am seeing now just recently tested me for everything in the book (I couldn't even name all of them, but I had swabs of all shapes and sizes in my pee hole today) - and this is after a standard urine test for chlamid/gonn came back negative. He has an inkling it could be herpes and I'm worried sick that he could be right, even though these "infections" are isolated to only after I engage in unprotected sex. Additionally, the symptoms I have don't seem to match those of herpes.

That all being said, I'd really appreciate it if some of you could share your thoughts on the matter. The test results should return by Friday, but I'm honestly worried sick at the moment and any bits of knowledge / advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much!

[Fleetwood20]

Sensational post. So many people on here state things like "I have eliminated everything else so it must be herpes". The are so many bacteria that give problems, many of them micoplasma of which there are many and hence often undiagnosed. A swap of these things with new partners often causes these things and triggers other things in our bodies as well.

Thanks for your story.

[ryan286]

So, I tested negative for both types of HSV - happy to hear that. However, I tested positive for Ureaplasma and given that a majority of sexually active people will test positive for this, it was determined that I am in the minority of those who exhibit very strong symptoms upon contracting the bacterium (and odds are I will contract it when I have unprotected sex with somebody). The doctor suggested that if I am in a serious relationship, my partner and I ought to take doxy for a bit longer than the normally prescribed duration, which could also reduce my chances of being infected next time.

[ryan286]

Thank you for the reply! I will keep you posted on the results.

[Fleetwood20]

You don't seem to be describing herpes, especially given the timing is not random as it would likely be from the point of infection. The specialist is clearly wise to check for it, let us know the results, but I'm not convinced this would be causing the symptoms even if you do have genital herpes.