Is it Herpes?

[Worried123...]

I recently had unprotected sex with a girl and had sex many many times over the course of 2 days. By the 4th or 5th time the lower sides of my penis started to really hurt because I was chafing very roughly against her pubic hair. However, we continued and had sex a few more times even though it was painful for me because of the extreme chafing. By the end of our visit my penis was very tender and raw and stung when I splashed water on it.

The next night there were groups of painful blisters where the extreme chafing had occured and also my lymph nodes in my groin were a bit tender and there was a mild sting when I urinated so it started to worry me that it may be herpes.

I went to a specialist and had a swab done and tests for herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and urethra infection. I was given Aciclovir and a cream to combat the infection in the case of herpes while waiting for the test results. The next day I was feeling a bit run down and fluish but this went away after a day.

The herpes test is not back yet but all the other tests came back negative. However, this worries me because I was hoping it was just some kind of urinary tract infection or something and the blisters were just from the repeated rough sex. What else could this be? Is it possible I'm feeling this way because of the unusual trauma to my penis? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

If there really were blisters, and if a health care provider thought herpes was sufficiently likely that s/he prescribed acyclovir, you can be pretty certain you have genital herpes.  Chafing alone, even from very frequent and vigorous sex, rarely causes such problems, especially in men.  And both the swelling in the groin and your run-down feeling are typical of herpes, but not of chafing or vigorous sex.

So I'm betting this is indeed a primary case of genital herpes.  Follow your provider's advice about treatment and follow-up.  And if not yet done, your partner needs to be examined and tested for the infection, even if she says she is 'sure' she doesn't have it.

In the meantime, you should start reading about genital herpes.  Beware of websites that are not professionally run. Start with the information available from my former health department (www.metrokc.gov/health/apu/std), the American Social Health Association (www.ashastd.org), CDC (www.cdc.gov/std), and/or the Westover Heights Clinic (www.westoverheights.com).

Good luck--  HHH, MD

One more thing:  Make sure your provider does a test to determine the virus type infecting you, i.e. HSV-1 or HSV-2.  That will make a lot of difference in predicting how frequently you might have recurrent outbreaks in the future and the risk of transmission to future partners.

[spike01]

He said the next night he had blisters? Would that be possible, with herpes to have blisters that fast?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Spike01 is right that herpes lesions cannot show up in less than 2-3 days.  But the context of the statement "the next night" suggest he meant after several days of sex--not the next morning after the only possible exposure.