Hopefully not Herpes

Hello,

I am a 29 year old male in the Army and currently deployed to Iraq, but I recently went home on R&R.  I have been married for 7 years, and my wife has been my only sexual partner.  We have been together and exclusive to each other for over 10 years.  She has only had two other sexual partners, and has received numerous check ups that cleared her of any sexually transmitted diseases, but recently had bacterial vaginosis.  I am quite confident that she does not have herpes, and has not been with anyone in the time that I have been deployed.

However, when I came home for R&R, I developed a single sore on my the shaft, toward the base, of my penis.  It started only a few days after I came home as what appeared to be a pimple, and right on a hair follicle.  I shave my pubic area.  I didn't think much of it, so I popped it in the shower.  The sore did not go away.  I continued to have sex, and the sore got worse.  My lymph nodes started to get sore and swell and I started having some soreness in my buttocks on the same side as the sore lymph nodes.  Prior to the sore emerging, we had unprotected anal sex, and I assumed that this unwise decision had probably led to a staph infection, so I went to a doctor.  The doctor looked at the sore and initially said that "it could be anything."  Then later, she somehow made the decision that it looked herpatic to her.  I was horrified.  The tests that she submitted were not completed until after I redeployed to Iraq.  I put Neosporin on the sore, and it was gone within a week.  What do you think it might have been?  

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

A single lesion that behaved like a pimple--i.e., if you were able to express pus from it--probably isn't herpes, and it sounds like your risk is low.  You don't say anything about your own sex life before marriage, and herpes can cause its first symptoms months or years after it is caught--but a 10-year delay would be very rare.  So I suspect you are exactly right--a pimple or folliculitis (hair follicle infection) that got a bit out of hand, perhaps due to anal sex but not necessarily.

If you want to be absolutely sure, ask your health care provider to do a blood test for HSV-2 infection.  (See other herpes-related questions and my responses about the proper herpes blood test to request.)  But I doubt this is herpes.

Thank you for what you are doing for us all.  Keep as safe as you can.  Regards--   HHH, MD

[Anxiously Waiting]

As a point of clarification, I meant that my wife is the only sexual partner I have had in my life (other than oral sex one other time over 12 years ago)...Believe it or not.

Anyway, the lesion started as what looked to be a white head pimple, but when I sqeezed it, only white fluid came out of the top.  It looked white, but perhaps could have been a blister.  There was only one though.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

I still doubt herpes.  Good luck--

HHH, MD