Yes, pubic lice and, in particular their eggs are easily seen. The time to appearance is variable and depends on things like re-exposure, etc. In your case, knowing that you are looking for them, if you had lice you would likely become aware rather quickly and certainly in less than two weeks. As I've noted above however, having beeen treated as you have been, there is little reason for concern and I would urge you not to worry. Try to move forward. EWH
Many thanks for posting this reply. Its very helpful.
As a matter of interest, as a practising doctor who has actually sees this stuff:
- Are they generally visible and easily spotted? For someone looking for them?
- Generally, how long do symptoyms usually take to show up?
Unlike with other stuff, there's a mass of contradictory info out there (from 5 days to several months!!!, nearly invisible to readily apparent etc) - even from usually reliable sources like UK NHS, NYC Dept of Health, CDC!!
Again, my head tells me the chances of anything are remote (almost non-existent). (After finding these crusts, I ran a comb through the areas and found absolutely NOTHING) - but I can't shake this stupid paranoia :-)
I won't post again - as I don't want to get into an OCD cycle of the type I see here a lot :-)
Welcome to our forum. There are two issues in play here. the first is, do you have pubic lice and the second is if not what might the things you saw be. I'll try to help with the first but cannot say much regarding the second question. . First, it is most unlikely that you have lice at this time. Not all exposures to lice lead to transmission, you have never been found to be infected (i.e. your treatment has been preventative) and you have been treated on more than one occasion. Putting all of this together, there is very little chance that you have lice.
As to what you might have seen, this is difficult to say. What you describe certainly does not sound like lice but as to what these might be, I cannot say- sorry.
That said, my impression from reading your post is that you are looking VERY hard for lice or louse eggs. It is time to try to relax and move forward. I am sure that if you look long and hard enough you might see things that might resemble lice but there is really little reason for concern. EWH