If you haven't had sex for more than a year, there is no way you can have an initial genital herpes infection. I don't know what you (or your doctor) mean by the IgG blood test result, but it sound to me like it is negative, in which case it rules out any chance of a longstanding HSV infection. In any case, genital herpes does not often involve the scrotum and recurrent herpes does not cause fever. All in all, the chance you have herpes is zero or close to it. As to whether it is Lyme disease or whatever else it might be, I leave to your primary care provider.
Best wishes-- HHH, MD
i forgot to mention that I believe the Doc is leaning towards Lyme despite the negative result is due to my lack of recent sexual exposure. He really seemed to think my skin conditioned looked herpes like. He saw it when this ring of brownish skin was flaking away. Also I live in Connecticut and i spent a lot of time in the woods so i'm at much higher risk of a tick bite then an std at the moment.
Does not sound like it, but the doctor here will tell you that your own doc's examination will beat anything he could do on line. 13 months after your last sexual contact would be a long time for your first symptoms- usually the first outbreak is the worst. Alos, usually herpes will appear on the shaft and not the scrotum. Usually. I'm betting that the doc will tell you that it does not sound like herpes, to relax, and rely on your own doc's advice.
Of course I cannot comment on what the lesion looks like to your doc. But your description is unlike herpes, both in location (scrotum) and the description of a brownish ring around it--which sounds to me like a classical description of erythema chronicum migrans (ECM), a hallmark of early Lyme disease. (But I'm definitely not a Lyme expert; I live in the wrong part of the country and have never seen ECM myself.)
Part of the answer may lie with the HSV blood test. I don't know what to make of your description of IgG antibody "almost but not completely undetectable". If that means the ELISA ratio was below 1.0 (but not zero), it is the same as zero and absolutely is a negative result. But if your doc is trying to soften the blow, perhaps what he really means is that your HSV-2 result is positive but not strongly so (i.e., ELISA ratio above 1.0). In that case, you may well be positive for HSV-2 infection--in which case, you might have a lesion of recurrent genital herpes (even though the scrotal location is atypical).
HHH, MD
If it's recurrent genital herpes then why the fever? I'm not exactly sure what he meant when he was trying to explain the blood test results. I was at work at the time of his call and had limited privacy and didn't really know what questions to ask anyway.
Just as I was becoming relieved I've now become concerned again. I've never had unprotected sex in my life and have ony had 2 partners. So of course I felt as if I was at very low risk for an std.
If it's recurrent genital herpes then why the fever? I'm not exactly sure what he meant when he was trying to explain the blood test results. I was at work at the time of his call and had limited privacy and didn't really know what questions to ask anyway.
Just as I was becoming relieved I've now become concerned again. I've never had unprotected sex in my life and have ony had 2 partners. So of course I felt as if I was at very low risk for an std.
I do not think you have herpes. I'm only saying that you don't provide enough information about your herpes blood test and therefore I don't know how to interpret it. This also is the first time you have said anything about your sexual risks. What you say makes me even more certain it isn't herpes.
HHH, MD