Genital Herpes Anxiety

I need some closure to this chapter in my life, and I was hoping you could help.  I posted a question on the HIV forum, but now I

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Let me see.  Your symptoms are not those of herpes or any STD (they don't even HINT at herpes!).  You have tested negative.  Health care providers including a urologist have told you that you don't have it.  And now you think I might come up with something different?  HPV also is not the cause of such symptoms.  You do not need further testing for HSV or any other infection.  You need professional counseling to deal with your purely anxiety-driven symptoms.

Here is something I have posted many times.  It applies to you:

"It is a fact of life that human beings get various aches and pains. Out of the blue there is knee pain, a headache, abdominal discomfort, a stich in the side, tingling down a leg. Sometimes such problems are continuing or recurrent, yet no specific cause ever is found and clearly no important infection or disease is present.

Why should the genital area be any different? Not every symptom means disease. People with such symptoms of course should see a health care provider. But when a comprehensive evaluation comes up with no good explanation, and if the symptoms persist after treatment of the potential infectious causes, it is wrong to assume a serious health problem. Just as some people have to learn to live with unexplained but benign headaches or abdominal pain, others have to live with unexplained genital symptoms.

Our genitals have a special place in our psyches, and unexplained discomfort can be harder to ignore than a painful joint or even a headache. But the principle holds. It's fine to look for harmless things that might help control symptoms. But potentially harmful treatments (e.g., repeated high doses of antibiotics, potent pain controllers) make no sense, and doctor-shopping (or internet shopping) for different answers is fruitless."

I will have no further comments or responses on this thread.

HHH, MD

[Gladfor the help]

I am sorry for what you are going through.  Let me start by saying how much I appreciate the Doc and his very helpful and comforting answers.  

I suffered from nearly the same thing you did for nearly 18 months.  I just knew I had an STD.  I had 4 full STD panels run and 6 urinalysis tests.  They were all negative, even during the worst of the symptoms.  I have seen a urologist 3 times for prostate exams (normal, with very low PSA levels) and an internal medicine specialist twice.  I have been on Doxy for 21 days and Tequen for 3 months.  

Finally the internal doctor took a spine X-ray and determined I had a curvatour of the spine which referred pain from the spine down into my groin.  He stated without doubt there no infections and if there had been the antibotics would have cleared them out.

My point in all this is that after so much testing and exams you must come to grips with the fact that the cause for your discomfort probably lies somewhere besides an infection.

I say this in an effort to comfort you conscience and hopeful you can look elsewhere for the cause of your problem.

Good luck.

[stressedout999]

How have your symptoms been ever since you realized that it forsure was not an std?

[Gladfor the help]

They have significantly reduced.  After reading many of the doctor's comments, I began to understand that if it was an STD causing the problems, the current testing procedures now available would have found them, or the antibotics would have curred them.  Most of these infections are not very difficult to find.  For the most part, the ones you are concerned about don't play hide and seek.

Also, the further away from the event you go, the less you think about it since your life takes on other priorities.  The longer you go without finding any sort of actual cause and nothing bad happening the less you are concerned about it.  

I also went for counseling which helped, but that was mostly for the guilt trip.

A change in life style, so as not to get into this situation again, also helps. That could mean not sleeping with strangers or at least using protection each and every time.  I chose not to sleep with strangers again.

Hope this helps.

[stressedout999]

I appreciate the advice from both of you.  It has helped enormously...more than you could imagine.