Aa
What's going on with me.
I am a male. November 1 i performed unprotected oral sex on a female followed by protected vaginal intercourse (she says she doesn't have hsv2, which means nothing, but she used to get cold sores, years ago, again means nothing I guess). on November 7th i noticed a very small white bump above the my lip and popped it, thinking it was a zit. After that i developed what seemed to be like cold sores on the mouth. I could feel them, but they were very difficult to see unless you looked very close. I had more symptoms inside my mouth: Small white dots on the corners of the mouth, small sores underneath the tounge. Swollen spots on the inside of the lip that would hurt, but go away in a day or two. I went to a doctor who prescribed Valtrex, based on my description, but only about 20 pills. I took two and waited.
About a week after I noticed an itching around my anus, not inside, but just below. No noticeable blisters, but it became uncomfortable to sit and lasted about 2 weeks. Three doctors did a physical examination and all said it's definitely not herpes, 2 said hemroids and prescribes a prescrition Prep H, one said i'm just freaking out, which is true, but it seemed too much of a coincidence to me that this happened so soon after my very first cold sore outbreak, given my sexual encounter. btw, this pain is not made up. It's not a fake itching or burning, though that may be there, it's a noticeable pain in the a--.
It's now been a month and new sores in the mouth and on the lips seem to come up almost daily.Some of them go away in a day, and some stick around for a bit, the white dots in the inside corners of my mouth have stayed most of the time, but the swollen spots on the inside and outside of the lips tend to come and go very quickly, even had one tiny clear one on my gums. Also the pain underneath seemed to almost clear up, but then came back. I began valtrex on Dec 3, but just ran out. It's only been 6 days, but it hasn't really made any difference.
I've had a negative IGM at 3 weeks, and was releived/confused until I discovered that the test is worthless, so I did a HSV-2 only IGG at 4 weeks and showed up negative for that as well (too early probably).
What I'm asking for are some opinions (none of which will be taken as a diagnosis). The things that confuse me are that:
1- HSV2 oral is very rare, and wouldn't normally recur, but I seem to have had symptoms going on 5 weeks now.
2- I had protected intercourse, and while I know that isn't fully protective I've read that the chances of catching HSV from one protected encounter are slim.
3- I'm breaking out in the back end, (nothing visible, but i can feel it) and there was no, nor has there ever been anal contact (again, possible but rare from what i've read). Is it possible I got HSV1 and infected myself, I have never had HSV-1 to my knowledge, or is HSV2 more likely because of the encounter. It's just so frustrating because I have to wait 3 months to figure out what is going on with my body.
4-Is there anything that i can really do besides wait three months and see what happens? w/o a visible lesion there is nothing to culture on the back-end, and the ones i have in my mouth have been there way too long, or go away the day i make the Dr.'s appointment.
5-I'm assuming I have either 1 or 2 in both locations. what can i expect with each diagnosis. i.e 2 I would assume the oral symptoms would clear up and likely not return (can i kiss people if it's 2), and 1 would be about 50/50 for a genital recurrance.
I'm not looking for the answer, I know I have to wait 3-4 months for a blood test, and i also know the real answer is go see your medical provider. I also understand you are not doctor's, so I will take any advice as non-expert advice. I guess i'm just frustrated and looking for someone to let me know what they think.
About a week after I noticed an itching around my anus, not inside, but just below. No noticeable blisters, but it became uncomfortable to sit and lasted about 2 weeks. Three doctors did a physical examination and all said it's definitely not herpes, 2 said hemroids and prescribes a prescrition Prep H, one said i'm just freaking out, which is true, but it seemed too much of a coincidence to me that this happened so soon after my very first cold sore outbreak, given my sexual encounter. btw, this pain is not made up. It's not a fake itching or burning, though that may be there, it's a noticeable pain in the a--.
It's now been a month and new sores in the mouth and on the lips seem to come up almost daily.Some of them go away in a day, and some stick around for a bit, the white dots in the inside corners of my mouth have stayed most of the time, but the swollen spots on the inside and outside of the lips tend to come and go very quickly, even had one tiny clear one on my gums. Also the pain underneath seemed to almost clear up, but then came back. I began valtrex on Dec 3, but just ran out. It's only been 6 days, but it hasn't really made any difference.
I've had a negative IGM at 3 weeks, and was releived/confused until I discovered that the test is worthless, so I did a HSV-2 only IGG at 4 weeks and showed up negative for that as well (too early probably).
What I'm asking for are some opinions (none of which will be taken as a diagnosis). The things that confuse me are that:
1- HSV2 oral is very rare, and wouldn't normally recur, but I seem to have had symptoms going on 5 weeks now.
2- I had protected intercourse, and while I know that isn't fully protective I've read that the chances of catching HSV from one protected encounter are slim.
3- I'm breaking out in the back end, (nothing visible, but i can feel it) and there was no, nor has there ever been anal contact (again, possible but rare from what i've read). Is it possible I got HSV1 and infected myself, I have never had HSV-1 to my knowledge, or is HSV2 more likely because of the encounter. It's just so frustrating because I have to wait 3 months to figure out what is going on with my body.
4-Is there anything that i can really do besides wait three months and see what happens? w/o a visible lesion there is nothing to culture on the back-end, and the ones i have in my mouth have been there way too long, or go away the day i make the Dr.'s appointment.
5-I'm assuming I have either 1 or 2 in both locations. what can i expect with each diagnosis. i.e 2 I would assume the oral symptoms would clear up and likely not return (can i kiss people if it's 2), and 1 would be about 50/50 for a genital recurrance.
I'm not looking for the answer, I know I have to wait 3-4 months for a blood test, and i also know the real answer is go see your medical provider. I also understand you are not doctor's, so I will take any advice as non-expert advice. I guess i'm just frustrated and looking for someone to let me know what they think.
that's still really a low positive for this much time to have passed.
did you ever pursue any additional work up?
grace
did you ever pursue any additional work up?
grace
above symptoms have persited pretty consistently, so I had to get tested again at 6 months.
HSV1 - 1.17 (up from .3 or .4 in January)
HSV2 - <.9
HSV1 surprised me given that the exposure didn't involve me recieving oral, and that the symptoms seem to return quite frequently. But I guess it is what it is.
I know you would consider this a low positive, but given that i've had symptoms and the number has noticably jumped since january I'm guessing I can take this as a positive result without further testing.
HSV1 - 1.17 (up from .3 or .4 in January)
HSV2 - <.9
HSV1 surprised me given that the exposure didn't involve me recieving oral, and that the symptoms seem to return quite frequently. But I guess it is what it is.
I know you would consider this a low positive, but given that i've had symptoms and the number has noticably jumped since january I'm guessing I can take this as a positive result without further testing.
Perhaps it's best if you stick to supportive type comments instead of attempting to tell folks what is going on? Unless I'm mistaken you really don't have any medical expertise correct?
grace
grace
for some strange reason i think your body is taking along time to produce antibodies. I think your positive for either type 1 or 2. Your right i have heard if u have type 2 on your mouth that u dont get alot of outbreaks. I wonder if u dont have type 1 on your mouth. I am just as confused as u r. And u r right it can take up to 3 months to diagnose but thats weird your not positive for it yet. Wow i just dont know what to tell u.
No more blood work. Go see a dermatologist or an ENT specialist and find out what is causing your mouth issues.
grace
grace
First I’d like to apologize for the above post, I was a little nutty at the time so I apologize if I came off as rude. I think what you do here is such a great service to those with and without hsv.
I took your advice and posted on the dr. forum a few months back, and they equally agreed that I was being crazy. So I began to accept that something else was going on, but just to be safe I wanted to re-test at 3 months. The test at 3 months came back negative. I also had the girl I was with in November get tested as well, and she too was negative (though I can’t verify that).
I have since gotten back with an old ex-girlfriend, and I told her I just wanted to hold off on sex until i get the blood work done at 6 months. Here’s the thing though. I still had the sores inside my mouth and I was convinced that it wasn’t herpes since every test was coming back negative, so I kissed my gf goodbye, and the next day she gets a cold-sore on her lip. (she tested negative on herpeselect for hsv-1 & 2 in December and has no history of cold sores). She went to the Dr. that day and the Dr. did a clinical diagnosis of oral herpes, gave her a prescription, but the culture came back negative. She has had one recurrence in the last month.
So I’m soooo confused right now. That just seems like a horrible coincidence. Also, the sores inside my mouth have persisted for 4 months now with no breaks at all. That said to me that it couldn’t be herpes because herpes wouldn’t last this long, but then my gf got the sore and I started to wonder if I’m just really unlucky.
So all the tests are telling me I don’t have it, but my gf’s Dr. was pretty convinced that she got it, and I’m the only one who could have given it to her. So i guess we just follow up with blood work in a few months and see what happens???
I took your advice and posted on the dr. forum a few months back, and they equally agreed that I was being crazy. So I began to accept that something else was going on, but just to be safe I wanted to re-test at 3 months. The test at 3 months came back negative. I also had the girl I was with in November get tested as well, and she too was negative (though I can’t verify that).
I have since gotten back with an old ex-girlfriend, and I told her I just wanted to hold off on sex until i get the blood work done at 6 months. Here’s the thing though. I still had the sores inside my mouth and I was convinced that it wasn’t herpes since every test was coming back negative, so I kissed my gf goodbye, and the next day she gets a cold-sore on her lip. (she tested negative on herpeselect for hsv-1 & 2 in December and has no history of cold sores). She went to the Dr. that day and the Dr. did a clinical diagnosis of oral herpes, gave her a prescription, but the culture came back negative. She has had one recurrence in the last month.
So I’m soooo confused right now. That just seems like a horrible coincidence. Also, the sores inside my mouth have persisted for 4 months now with no breaks at all. That said to me that it couldn’t be herpes because herpes wouldn’t last this long, but then my gf got the sore and I started to wonder if I’m just really unlucky.
So all the tests are telling me I don’t have it, but my gf’s Dr. was pretty convinced that she got it, and I’m the only one who could have given it to her. So i guess we just follow up with blood work in a few months and see what happens???
I assume you are referring to the lafferty article? You can look it up on pubmed.gov - there are a few other publications on hsv2 orally out there.
You probably want to pay to ask these questions of HHH/EWH over on the std experts forum but it's really not worth the money to do so until you've followed up on this. Not sure they will tell you anything different from what I have but sounds like you need to hear it from them perhaps. also unless you get a + hsv2 lesion culture it's going to be hard to convince anyone that you have hsv2 orally to be honest. It's far more likely to be something else going on than hsv2 orally.
grace
You probably want to pay to ask these questions of HHH/EWH over on the std experts forum but it's really not worth the money to do so until you've followed up on this. Not sure they will tell you anything different from what I have but sounds like you need to hear it from them perhaps. also unless you get a + hsv2 lesion culture it's going to be hard to convince anyone that you have hsv2 orally to be honest. It's far more likely to be something else going on than hsv2 orally.
grace
I agree that some of my symptoms are not consistent with herpes, but many of them are consistent with what I've read regarding HSV-2 orally. Inta-oral infection seems to be the most noted symptom of HSV-2 oral, and the doctors didn't seem to disagree that i probably had oral herpes, however they didn't type the culture and the blood test was an IGM (i went and got an IGG at a lab on my own and only tested for HSV-2, which was my fault because i thought i was testing for both)
I plan on seeing a health care professional soon, but let's just assume that I actually have HSV-2 orally (granted that may not be the case). Everyone seems to reference the study from 1987 saying that it's very rare that it will ever recur. Is there any recent studies showing that HSV-2 orally is unlikely to recur after an initial primary infection. Everything i've read from postings seems to contradict that. In fact, most people claim that it is very severe and almost constant (is this the exception to the rule,)
I almost don't even care that i think i have GH right now. I'm more concerned with my oral symptoms.
btw, i know you disagree that this is what i have, and i respect that given that my symptoms are a little out of the ordinary (at least in the genital area). I am just looking for some information regarding the topic since this is my uneducated opinion of my diagnosis.
I plan on seeing a health care professional soon, but let's just assume that I actually have HSV-2 orally (granted that may not be the case). Everyone seems to reference the study from 1987 saying that it's very rare that it will ever recur. Is there any recent studies showing that HSV-2 orally is unlikely to recur after an initial primary infection. Everything i've read from postings seems to contradict that. In fact, most people claim that it is very severe and almost constant (is this the exception to the rule,)
I almost don't even care that i think i have GH right now. I'm more concerned with my oral symptoms.
btw, i know you disagree that this is what i have, and i respect that given that my symptoms are a little out of the ordinary (at least in the genital area). I am just looking for some information regarding the topic since this is my uneducated opinion of my diagnosis.
Nothing you've described sounds like herpes. I don't think you have oral herpes and since a provider who actually saw your anal symptoms didn't feel that they were herpes, no reason to doubt that either. At this point going to see your regular provider or an ENT specialist for the oral issues is the next step. Personally I wouldn't even bother repeating your herpes testing in a few months unless you are just THAT paranoid.
grace
grace
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You are reading content posted in the Herpes Community
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Millions of people are diagnosed with STDs in the U.S. each year.
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
