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Herpes

Doctor I have some questions about herpes. 15 months ago I had unprotected oral and vaginal sex with a stranger.
I never had any symptoms that I know of, about a month ago I had what my dr told me was jock itch, now two weeks ago I got these pimples on the side of my head near the glands. Some seem to have left but some are still there. One of them I tried to pop but couldn't. So I took tweasers to it and it opened up but just bleed no puss or anything else. It scabbed up the next day, then the scab came off in the shower and now it's just looks white. The pimples never seemed to scab over other than that one. What I'm wondering is it possible to be herpes and I just never knew it before. I was very nervous and always checking myself for stuff and never saw anything. Also at 12 weeks my elisa test for hiv came back postive but wb was negative. can herpes cause this. I also noticed my wife had a cold sore recently and has given unprotected oral. I know cold sores are common in fact her mother gets them but just wanted to add everything.
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239123 tn?1267647614
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
If the pimples were due to herpes, they would have cleared up by now.  A herpes outbreak never lasts more than 1-2 weeks.  You can expect your doctor to diagnose something other than herpes or HIV, probably nothing serious.

If I'm wrong, i.e. if the diagnosis turns out to be herpes, HIV, or any other STD, please come back and let me know.  But other than that, we need to end this thread.  I won't have any additional comments or advice.  
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Avatar universal
Dr,

I just wanted to follow up. I go to the Doctor next week and am really nervous about herpes for some reason. The pimples are still there and have never scabed over. It's been four weeks now. I also forgot to mention before that they were never painful. They also don't seem to be getting larger. In the morning when I wake up the area seems to be really red but by late afternoon it almost goes back to it's natural color. I do sleep on my chest. It was the hiv test I was talking about early. I dont know if I have just caused it to stay longer by ckecking it every minute or what. Any ideas or advice would be helpful.  Thank you for you time.
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239123 tn?1267647614
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL

Welcome to the STD forum. I'll try to help. The bottom line is that it is unlikely you have genital herpes or infection with HSV-2.

Tinea cruris (jock) itch and genital herpes cause very different appearances; the average primary care provider is not likely to mistake either one for the other.  So your doctor's diagnosis of tinea is strong evidence against herpes.

That said, it is possible you have two different conditions, since tinea cruris doesn't generally cause pimples or the hard sort of bumps you describe on your penis.  But those lesions also don't sound much like herpes. Possibilities that come to mind are genital warts and molluscum contagiosum (a minor viral infection).  But I really can't say anything more about them.  If the bumps persist or reappear, return to your health care provider -- before you try any more self treatment like popping or opening them with tweezers.

Presumably there is no typographic error in your question about the blood test results, i.e. you mean an HIV ELISA and Western blot, not HSV.  It's nice to hear that you aren't in a state of panic about your false positive HIV test.  The Western blot is the result that matters; it proves you aren't infected with HIV. The causes of false positive or indeterminant HIV ELISA tests are generally unknown but they don't have any known health consequences. This is completely unrelated to your genital area rash(es).

I hope this helps.  Best wishes--  HHH, MD
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