Aa
Herpes, HPV, or yeast?
I am a 24 year old female that has had a recurring problem with vaginitis for a little over two years now. I have only had one sexual partner my whole life since I was 17 to the present time. However, there was a period after 5 years of a monogamous relationship that we broke up for about a week. Long story short I had an encounter on a date in this period that has left some questions in my mind since. While making out this person he slipped his hand and touched my genitals for a second. I also moved my hand in the dark and felt wetness and the person stated that it was pre-ejaculate (he had unzipped and exposed himself without me noticing). I was very angry after this exposure and ended the date. My concern for this encounter was the fact that I had open cuts on my fingers on the hand that was exposed to his bodily fluids due to eczema and of course the hand to genital contact and possible transmission of his bodily fluids to that area. Me and my boyfriend did get back together and have been monogamous, he did not have any other sexual partners during our entire relationship. Never had any vaginal problems before the date encounter while with my long-term boyfriend. Well six months later after the encounter I start having my first symptoms: green/frothy discharge, itching, irritation. However it happens right after we have anal sex and my bf re-enters my vagina without cleaning himself so i assumed it was due to that. Dr. does not find any trichomonas, neg wiff, normal pH, only thing diagnosed was yeast. Also tested for clamydiah/gonorrhea and they come back negative. HIV and syphylis negative. I have an iud in place at this time that had been in place for 3 years by now with no adverse effects. I am also been on triamcinolone 1% ointment on my hand since I was 12 years old that I use for eczema on fingers. Symptoms improve slightly and do not go away fully but it gets embarrasing to go to doctor again. 1 year after encounter I have nonstop bleeding, turns out to be ectopic pregnancy with iud perfectly in place still. I have the iud removed but ectopic was not detected until after it burst the fallopian tube, fallopian tube removed. Still keep having mild symptoms 2 years later. I encounter a large red painful boil at area were mons pubis meets stomach right in crease dr. says it's nothing to worry about. It subsides after about a week with no crusting, no bursting. Through out these two years of visits I have been treated several times with antibiotics for things I did not have such as for clamydiah/gonorrhea before they received the test results back, etc and it may have contributed to the prolongation of my symptoms. My boyfriend recently was tested for HIV, syphyllis,clamy/gonorr, herpes(with a viral culture on routine visit and normal skin, don't know how that would be reliable) all NEG, including a trichomonas culture, it did not show any growth so i was treated about an estimate of 8-10 times with antibiotics for things I did not have in a quest for a solution. I finally looked for alternative medicine and took boric acid vaginal suppositories for 14 days and took L.crispatus which significantly lessened my symptoms but have not eliminated them. Still have some mild itching but not enough to drive me crazy like before. Given that my symptoms did not start after this encounter and they have been persistent and I've ruled out all std's except herpes and hpv, I'm leaning towards these two. I don't think having chronic yeast and bv would be due to one event of anal/vaginal sex contamination since I've been treated several times with no complete symptom relief. I have had several weird things happening during this time like a very bad cystic acne breakout that was horrific and I had always had very mild acne. I also had ringworm on my elbow. I guess I'm just baffled, could it be something viral like herpes or hpv that is causing the mild itching or is it just anxiety. Never had any blisters or warts that I know of, and all paps have been normal though they never tested for hpv. Some possible herpes symptoms as of recently, one episode of mild sore throat likely from allergies, sciatica type pain down legs and lower back that lasted 5 days(but I run and also had a incident 2 days earlier were I had brief pain after cleaning out my car trunk in the cold and holding my legs locked for a long period of time, 1 or 2 "zings" in my private area during this back pain and some clitoral itching upon waking but that subsided after showering. Should I get tested for the last two STD's in my process of elimination or are they unlikely to have been transmitted during my date encounter?
My HSV igg test results were negative for hsv2 and positive for hsv1 (which I knew would be + since I've had cold sores on my lip before), I feel so much better and I've pretty much have ruled everything out and now I'm pretty confident what I've had all along is an e.coli or mycoplasma vaginal infection, I'll be going to the doctor in two weeks to get a culture done.
I think my issues are definately more mental than anything, the nurse at the clinic today (on the phone) tried to talk me out of testing for it b/c she said my issues were with my guilt and wouldn't help in any way but I think I should be responsible and brave and just go in a get it over with or I'm going to have this thing hanging over my head if i don't test for it.
if you do have herpes, you didn't know you had it. Hard to prevent transmission of something you didn't know you had and probably your provider never even ever discussed let alone offered testing for.
Thank you so much for answer. I have been tested for allergies to chemicals and I try to stay away from those chemicals. The herpes test brings a lot of anxiety but I still want to do it, I'm just not sure how I'm going to tell my partner if it's positive. He knows what happened on that date encounter but I didn't tell him until much later because I was scared he would be mad of what happened on that date, he was understanding when I told him but it would kill me if it turned out I brought hsv into the relationship and then gave it to him. He never I think the guilt is the main culprit behind all this paranoia and I'm just trying to prepare myself for the worst at this point.
odds are that neither you nor your partner have ever been tested properly for herpes. why don't you get a type specific herpes igg blood test and see what your status is for no other reason than peace of mind?
you have eczema issues on your hands. You can also have eczema issues on your genitals. Also if you haven't been through allergy testing yet, probably worthwhile to see a dermatologist and get it done to see if there are chemicals you are sensitive too that are making your hand issues worse. the two might be connected a little bit as far as some of your symptoms going on genitally. Also having vaginitis frequently can make your genital skin extra sensitive too.
you've been on multiple antibiotics too which as you already know can cause yeast to linger. Not sure which supplement you are taking of probiotics but I recommend femdophilis by jarrow ( rephresh proB has the same strains in too ). There is a lot of research behind the 2 strains in those products at this point to show that they work.
does this sound like hpv ? no it does not.
does it sound like herpes? Well some of your symptoms could be but odds are it isn't.
I'd have your dermatologist work with your gyn at this point to try to figure out what all is going on.
grace
you have eczema issues on your hands. You can also have eczema issues on your genitals. Also if you haven't been through allergy testing yet, probably worthwhile to see a dermatologist and get it done to see if there are chemicals you are sensitive too that are making your hand issues worse. the two might be connected a little bit as far as some of your symptoms going on genitally. Also having vaginitis frequently can make your genital skin extra sensitive too.
you've been on multiple antibiotics too which as you already know can cause yeast to linger. Not sure which supplement you are taking of probiotics but I recommend femdophilis by jarrow ( rephresh proB has the same strains in too ). There is a lot of research behind the 2 strains in those products at this point to show that they work.
does this sound like hpv ? no it does not.
does it sound like herpes? Well some of your symptoms could be but odds are it isn't.
I'd have your dermatologist work with your gyn at this point to try to figure out what all is going on.
grace
So do you think I should still get tested just in case? Not that I would be able to do anything about HPV or HSV but at least I could get it off my mind and move on. I did go back to my medical records and noticed that I originally came in for a foot rash and I was prescribed Keflex for it, 1-2 weeks later that's when my symptoms began and spun into a really bad cycle of more and more antibiotics so it may just be my system is seriously shot from over prescription of anti-biotics, I just wish I had been more observant and noticed that maybe the things I was being prescribed were making a simple problem worse.
Have an Answer?
You are reading content posted in the STDs / STIs 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.
