Sick with anxiety.. Herpes? Please help...

[worried970]

So here is my story. I am a 23 y/o white female. I have been with my boyfriend for 3 years (although we had broken up for 6 months in between). During our breakup I had naively had two unprotected "one night stands" with two different male friends. I also had unprotected sex maybe 3 or 4 times with a male co-worker, who I unfortunately caught chlamydia from. (These encounters were about a year ago). After catching the STD I became extremely anxious that I had caught everything in the book. I became obsessed with poking and prodding myself and looking for anything suspicious.  During my investigation of myself I found what looked to be a couple millimeter painless sore on the left side of my introitus. It didn't hurt when I touched it, nor did it burn when I urinated. I went to my OB/GYN who said nothing looked abnormal and there was no way I could have herpes anyways because I would be in extreme pain if I did (which I know is NOT true because the majority of people have very minor symptoms). She refused to do any testing on me and told me to quit worrying. After that encounter I gave up and continued on with my life.

About a month ago I drank a little too much and was unfortunately taken advantage of. (I ended up making him get tested for everything and he said he came back negative). Unprotected sex ensued and about a week later I got what seemed to be my first ever yeast infection.It seemed as if my skin was practically peeling off, starting at my clitoris. That was my main symptoms besides slight pruritis and just feeling a bit more sensitive in that area. However, no burning or pain. Paranoid about herpes, I went to an immediate care center that day (Friday). She saw no yeast with the KOH, no clue cells of BV, and did a herpes viral culture, which eventually came back negative.  Three days later (Monday) I went to my OB/GYN after the itching became unbearable. I had given myself excoriations. She did a yeast culture and a herpes viral culture. HSV came back negative and I was positive for a little yeast. Took a diflucan and used OTC cream for itching.

About a week later I ended up having sex with my boyfriend in the shower. It burned a little (which now that I think of it, I usually experience some slight burning with sex about 80% of the time) and then after I had very severe vaginal burning with urination. This only really lasted the rest of that night. I called my OB/GYN and she just prescribed me another diflucan without seeing me. This time, however I didn't get to the point of itching. Just that one time burning sensation and I ended up getting the classic discharge. This time, thought, I noticed a sore in the same place that I had last time (about a year ago). It was still painless, but was larger in size this time. I have continued to examine it every day and it has continued to get smaller and smaller. It has been here for a good couple weeks and seems to be almost completely gone. I know that the sensitivity of viral culture isn't extremely good, so I opted to just go for a blood test (since I have already had a sore in this same spot about a year ago). I have never had the characteristic signs or symptoms of genital herpes. Basically just the one sore.. never saw blisters... never had burning or pain. The only thing that I can recall is short-lived tingling in the genital area, that almost seems to occur daily since I became obsessed with the thought of genital herpes. (It is possible that this has always occurred but I was not as aware of it).

I also think I should add that I have had "coldsores" since I was a child. I have never officially gotten tested for HSV1, but they are pretty characteristic of oral herpes.

So here are a few questions.

1) What could possibly cause a painless sore to re-appear in the same spot?

2) Is it possible that this sore just comes and goes in this spot due to higher friction in that area during sex? Or maybe the spot was easily eroded off because of a concurrent yeast infection?

3) Could a herpes sore be completely painless? Maybe because I have some resistance to severe outbreaks due to practically 20 years of what I think to be oral herpes?

4) If I auto-inoculated myself in that spot, should I expect a herpes outbreak to be minimal like this? (Due to HSV1 not being in its site of preference and me already having anitbodies to this virus type)

5) Basically, what do you think the chances of me having HSV1 or 2 genitally based on this massive amount of information?

I had my blood drawn today and should have my results in about a week. I am worrying myself sick with the thought of having genital herpes. I have anxiety as is and this is just making me insaneeee :[

Thank you SO much for taking the time to read all of this

[auntiejessi]

This isn't sounding like herpes, but it certainly might be.  If you've had hsv1 orally, its doubtful you would ever get it genitally, so if you do have genital herpes, it would be hsv2.

That said, herpes pain wouldn't be this consistent.  Have you had any hormone testing done?  An endocervical culture sent of to see what grows?

That would be my next step if the hsv2 comes back negative.

Aj

[worried970]

I have never had hormone testing done and only had a GC/Chlamydia culture done of my endocervix. Are you thinking a hormonal imbalance might be causing the sore? Or the dysparunia?

Have you ever heard of herpes manifesting as a recurring painless sore?

[auntiejessi]

Yes, but its much more common to have pain with it.

And I wonder if something hormonal is going on, which can cause thinning of the tissues, and that can certainly cause problems like the ones you describe.  Google atrophic vaginitis and see what you think.

Aj

[worried970]

I am familiar with atrophic vaginitis and know that it usually occurs in post-menopausal women. I am only 23 and am also taking Loestrin 24 for birth control. Thus, I find it hard to believe that I would actually have something hormonal going on, especially since I don't really seem to have any other symptoms.

I am also begninning to wonder if it is something else because as I recall, I have never NOT seen the sore there. Every time I have checked within the past year (which may have been maybe once a month or so) it has always been there at the same size. I also never can pinpoint any other symptoms associated with it. (I just usually seem to be more aware, or paranoid, about it if I am having other issues eg. yeast infection, painful sex, UTI). The only time the lesion changed was a couple weeks ago when I had the yeast infection. It had gotten bigger.

Now over a course of about 2 1/2 weeks it has gotten smaller, but has still not disappeared. It is back to it's "original" size and I am wondering if it will disappear completely.

What do you think about this?
How long would an internal sore that is always moist (on the inner most part of my introitus) take to heal if it were herpes? Longer because of the moisture?

This is very frustrating. I called my doctor's office today and they said they don't think the results will be in till Wednesday :[ This is making me mentally and physically exhausted...

Thanks again for all your advice.

[worried970]

I have an appointment tomorrow morning to go over my test results.

[Erika3859]

I read your blog and I can tell you that when an outbreak happens not only are the herpes blisters hurt, the upper legs get a tingling sensation.

I can say that most women get like little pimple like bumps in the bikini area and are not painful.

If you have herpes it will show up on the blood test results; and if it shows up negative then you will have no more worries.

good luck and take care

[worried970]

Thanks for your reply!

I do get folliculitis type bumps in the bikini area when I shave, but the lesion that I have noticed is just inside the opening of my vagina.

I'm leaving right now for my results. *Crosses fingers*

[worried970]

HerpeSelect Test Results

HSV-1 IgG 4.53
HSV-2 IgG 0.09

I expected the HSV-1 result as I have had cold sores since I was a child.

So I guess now I have no idea what my vaginal lesion could be. I am very relieved, however, that I don't have gential herpes! (Although my last unprotected sexual partner was June14th ~ I made him get tested and he said his STD "bloodwork" was all fine. I'm assuming he was tested for herpes. I'll ask him to make sure)

Any additional comments or advice?

[slacker101]

Yeah, nothing you have said is consistent with genital herpes anyhow. Herpes isn't going to come and when it goes away, get smaller and smaller.

[worried970]

Yeah my anxiety gets the best of me sometimes, which leads me to expect the worst case scenario.

I also asked my last partner about his testing and said he was negative for herpes.

I am just glad that I can finally put all this worry behind me.

Thank you so much to everybody who has responded to me. It really means a lot :]