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Lingering Symptoms - What to Do?
Doctor, just when I think I can but this to bed (pardon the pun), something happens and I cannot. I have noticed when I wear some tighter fitting clothes, particularly jeans, the left side of my scrotum itches and/or feels weird. I have scheduled an appointment with a dermatologist for next week. I am really freaking out over this. I have had no bumps, blisters, or anything except one bump in my pubic area 6 wks post exposure.
I tested negative at 3, 6 and 9 weeks for hsv2. What to do? Do I need to have more bloodwork done? Do I have herpes and and are these funny feelings on my scrotum symptomatic of herpes? Is the scrotum a place likely for herpes to show up?
Please help me to avoid going crazy!
Thanks so much sir.
I tested negative at 3, 6 and 9 weeks for hsv2. What to do? Do I need to have more bloodwork done? Do I have herpes and and are these funny feelings on my scrotum symptomatic of herpes? Is the scrotum a place likely for herpes to show up?
Please help me to avoid going crazy!
Thanks so much sir.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Doesn't sound like herpes.
This thread is definitely closed. There is no need to post any future blood tests unless positive for HSV.
Sorry but just noticed this...
A recent development - I have not had vaginal sex with this girl since. I did however allow her to perform oral sex on me Thursday night. I just notice right below the head of my penis that I have a red area about a 1/2'' long that looks to be under the surface of the skin. This is 3 days after the oral sex. The red does not itch, burn or anything.
Does this sound like it is herpes or just maybe the friction of her teeth/suction? Do I need to have a doctor examine it today and can a person have hsv2 both orally and genitally?
Thank you and I have scheduled myself for another blood test and will update you after all of this. Again thank you for helping me deal with this and life!
A recent development - I have not had vaginal sex with this girl since. I did however allow her to perform oral sex on me Thursday night. I just notice right below the head of my penis that I have a red area about a 1/2'' long that looks to be under the surface of the skin. This is 3 days after the oral sex. The red does not itch, burn or anything.
Does this sound like it is herpes or just maybe the friction of her teeth/suction? Do I need to have a doctor examine it today and can a person have hsv2 both orally and genitally?
Thank you and I have scheduled myself for another blood test and will update you after all of this. Again thank you for helping me deal with this and life!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
If she had an outbreak the time, the risk was higher. But my conviction you are not infected is based on the entire picture, not just one element such as the exposure.
I'm sure many people with herpes complain of continuous tingling; and that some people with continuous tingling think they have herpes. Personal testimony on line, about a disease with complex emotional elements, is notoriously unreliable. The objfective research by careful investigators does not support such symptoms from genital herpes.
That will have to close this thread. Take care.
I'm sure many people with herpes complain of continuous tingling; and that some people with continuous tingling think they have herpes. Personal testimony on line, about a disease with complex emotional elements, is notoriously unreliable. The objfective research by careful investigators does not support such symptoms from genital herpes.
That will have to close this thread. Take care.
Dr. Handsfield, thanks. I have an appoinment with a dermatologist this week. I have what I think is a sebaceous cyst on my scrotum (white and hard and has been there since all of this other stuff has been going on - 6 months) to have him examine and remove if possible. If what I read is correct, this couldn't be herpes.
Anyway, notwithstanding the fact that the lady I slept with was having an outbreak at the time you still believe the mathematical probabilites of me being infected with herpes is "1 chance in many million"?
I guess I have to stop reading all these internet boards, but I read everywhere that herpes causes constant genital tingling - outbreaks or not and this really messes with me. As I have read on here, the internet is powerful in both good and bad ways.
Thanks again!
Anyway, notwithstanding the fact that the lady I slept with was having an outbreak at the time you still believe the mathematical probabilites of me being infected with herpes is "1 chance in many million"?
I guess I have to stop reading all these internet boards, but I read everywhere that herpes causes constant genital tingling - outbreaks or not and this really messes with me. As I have read on here, the internet is powerful in both good and bad ways.
Thanks again!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Herpes does not do this -- period. Even though you can find things like tingling, itching, etc in lists of herpes, this only means that herpes blisters/sores may tingle or itch; or tingling/itching can precede an outbreak by 1-2 days. And herpes symptoms NEVER last more than 1-2 weeks at a time (during outbreaks), and outbreaks virtually never occur more often than every 4-6 weeks, with no symptoms at all between outbreaks. Thus, both the nature and time pattern of your symptoms doesn't fit herpes. As for being confused with jock itch, that's only after the fact. Someone is diagnosed with herpes, recalls no obvious outbreak, then remembers an episode of genital sores that, in retropsect, he thought was jock itch at the time. But that's because herpes was confused with jock itch, not because jock itch was confused with herpes. The symptoms are in fact quite different.
Sometimes when a person has had a sexual exposure they regret, or that causes concern of any sort, it can be followed by genitally focused anxiety -- which, it seems to me, is a good bet for your symptoms.
Anyway, what were the odds you were infected? Among monogamous couples in which one person has HSV-2, who have unprotected vaginal sex 2-3 times per week, only about 1 in 20 partners becomes infected per year. That works out to somewhere around 1 in 1,000 during any particular exposure. So your risk was rather low. I could buy the chance you caught it, even with those odds; I might be able to buy the atypical symptoms; and I might be able to buy the idea that you are one of those persons who never develops a positive blood test. But what are the odds that all 3 of those factors went the wrong way? Simple mathematical probabilities mean that they are astronomically small, max 1 chance in many million. In other words, zero.
As for more testing, it can take up to 3 or even 4 months for HSV-2 blood tests to become positive. So if you want still more assurance against herpes, you could have another test at that time. But note what I said above, which I reemphasize now: If your test becomes positive, it will NOT explain your symptoms. It would mean you have asymptomatic HSV-2 plus some other cause (anxiety?) for your symptoms.
My suggestion is that simply forget herpes. Put it out of your mind. Do not over-analyze everly little feeling you have in your genitals or elsewhere, and do not repeatedly examine your penis, scrotum, etc. You don't have it -- and once you come to believe that, your symptoms may simply fade away.
Sometimes when a person has had a sexual exposure they regret, or that causes concern of any sort, it can be followed by genitally focused anxiety -- which, it seems to me, is a good bet for your symptoms.
Anyway, what were the odds you were infected? Among monogamous couples in which one person has HSV-2, who have unprotected vaginal sex 2-3 times per week, only about 1 in 20 partners becomes infected per year. That works out to somewhere around 1 in 1,000 during any particular exposure. So your risk was rather low. I could buy the chance you caught it, even with those odds; I might be able to buy the atypical symptoms; and I might be able to buy the idea that you are one of those persons who never develops a positive blood test. But what are the odds that all 3 of those factors went the wrong way? Simple mathematical probabilities mean that they are astronomically small, max 1 chance in many million. In other words, zero.
As for more testing, it can take up to 3 or even 4 months for HSV-2 blood tests to become positive. So if you want still more assurance against herpes, you could have another test at that time. But note what I said above, which I reemphasize now: If your test becomes positive, it will NOT explain your symptoms. It would mean you have asymptomatic HSV-2 plus some other cause (anxiety?) for your symptoms.
My suggestion is that simply forget herpes. Put it out of your mind. Do not over-analyze everly little feeling you have in your genitals or elsewhere, and do not repeatedly examine your penis, scrotum, etc. You don't have it -- and once you come to believe that, your symptoms may simply fade away.
Even though I had sex with a woman known to have hsv2, who was having an outbreak this couldn't be herpes causing my symptoms?
Last question - I promise? Do you suggest further blood testing on my part. The test type was herpeselect igg specific that I had in past.
I guess when I put 2 and 2 together and read on other sites that herpes can cause itching, burning or symptoms confused with jock itch, it makes me feel like thats what is causing my symptoms - particularly since I had a bump in my pubic area 6 weeks after this sex and to my knowledge I have had none before or since.
Thank you and again, the question above is my last.
Last question - I promise? Do you suggest further blood testing on my part. The test type was herpeselect igg specific that I had in past.
I guess when I put 2 and 2 together and read on other sites that herpes can cause itching, burning or symptoms confused with jock itch, it makes me feel like thats what is causing my symptoms - particularly since I had a bump in my pubic area 6 weeks after this sex and to my knowledge I have had none before or since.
Thank you and again, the question above is my last.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome back to the forum.
These are a repeat of the same questions you had in November and I have nothing to add to Dr. Hook's opinon and advice. You are fixated on herpes as a potential cause of your symptoms. There is simply no basis for it. Neither herpes nor any other STD causes the kinds of symptoms you describe, in the absence of outbreaks (which intellectually you realize -- you said it yourself in the thread with Dr. Hook 2 in November). And your negative blood tests further demonstrate you don't have HSV-2. Even if your blood test had been positive for HSV-2, or if it becomes positive any time in the future, it would not explain your symptoms. A positive result would mean you would have asymptomatic herpes plus some other cause of the feelings you describe.
Unfortunately, that's as far as this forum can go. You have no STD, and we don't speculate on non-STD issues. Sorry I can't help. Good luck with it--
HHH, MD
These are a repeat of the same questions you had in November and I have nothing to add to Dr. Hook's opinon and advice. You are fixated on herpes as a potential cause of your symptoms. There is simply no basis for it. Neither herpes nor any other STD causes the kinds of symptoms you describe, in the absence of outbreaks (which intellectually you realize -- you said it yourself in the thread with Dr. Hook 2 in November). And your negative blood tests further demonstrate you don't have HSV-2. Even if your blood test had been positive for HSV-2, or if it becomes positive any time in the future, it would not explain your symptoms. A positive result would mean you would have asymptomatic herpes plus some other cause of the feelings you describe.
Unfortunately, that's as far as this forum can go. You have no STD, and we don't speculate on non-STD issues. Sorry I can't help. Good luck with it--
HHH, MD
You are reading content posted in the STDs Forum
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.
