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HSV symptoms question

Hello Ms. Warren
I would really appreciate your guidance and perspective on my situation...
1) Male received protected oral from female 14 weeks ago. It lasted only a few minutes with protected handjob intermixed as well.  Fairly sure there was no contact below condom.
2) Localized on and off daily tingling/irritation on penis head starting few days after which continued for the first month and a half.  This feeling has for the most part gone away by now.
3) Small white bump, 3 to 4 mm in size appeared on penis head 5mm beside urethra opening 20 days after event (fairly sure it was not a typical herpes blister as I’ve had shingles and would recognize that type) and then disappeared 4/5 days or so later after leaving only the tiniest raised skin mark that is still visible to this day.  Bump appeared in the same location as the tingling/irritation sensations.
4) Taking the above issues into consideration I am concerned that she may have spit into the condom before putting it on me. This is a “what if” due to my symptoms that are occurring under condom protection.
Went to STI clinic and was urine tested as well blood tested as for HIV, Hep B and syphilis as routine procedures.  On Day 11 my urethra was swabbed for HSV (negative) and I was also visually checked for blisters/bumps due to my tingling symptom.  A few weeks later when returning for test results I also did ask two different doctors (Day 42 and 84) about the white bump that occurred on day 20 (unfortunately they only examined it after it went away). One said it was probably glandular and the other shrugged it off telling me about typical herpes blister timelines and that mine didn't last long enough.

Testing so far: (Immunoblot available only)
1) 1 Week baseline Immunoblot - Neg. for both
2) 6 Week Immunoblot – Neg. for both

Questions/Next steps:
odds of hsv1 from event?
next testing and accuracy? (15/16 weeks Immunoblot?)
comments on symptoms...

Thank you
5 Responses
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55646 tn?1263660809
Great news.

Terri
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hello again Ms Warren

Thank you for your last comment. I did do a final test at 15 weeks and the result was negative. The test was Immunoblot because that was all that was available. Thank you for your perspective and guidance. I intend to move forward with life and put these concerns behind me.
Helpful - 0
55646 tn?1263660809
That's OK, you can retest.  In my mind, the only downsides of testing are cost, lack of someone to help you interpret the results  and 2.6% risk of a false positive.  At least that's the percent we see in our patients at the clinic.  Of all people who test (and we run about 75-100 per month), about 5.2% of people test in the low positive range for HSV 2.  The low positive range is 1.1 to 3.5.  Of those, half do not confirm as positive when tested by western blot.  So you know, if you get a low positive result, you know you need a confirmatory test.  

Best to you.

Terri
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Terri,
Thank you very much for your reply.  I am quite aware that it is rare for you to say that you don't think that I need to retest as I have ready numerous posts on this forum as well as your handbook and book.  I really do appreciate your honest and reflective opinion and do feel that I have received my money's worth from the post.  I don't know about relaxing though and do feel that I may still test one last time over this next week or so, expecting nothing to change, and then look forward to putting this behind me forever.
Thanks once again
Helpful - 0
55646 tn?1263660809
I am happy to tell you I think your symptoms are NOT due to herpes.  First I consider your risk.  Given the situation, the risk that you experienced is extremely close to zero.  Keep up the good work on having very safe sexual practices.  The negative antibody tests confirm the lack of infection.  Honestly, given the very low risk of your experience, I don't even think you need to retest at 16 weeks.  And if you read back over my posts, you'll find it rarely say that.  If you can't relax, you can retest.  But I would not expect any change at all from these results.  

I wish there would be more I could say about this so you would really feel you got your money's worth from the post but there just isn't more to say about this.  The risk is near zero, the symptoms aren't consistent with herpes, the tests are negative.  Please put this behind you.  You've done all the right things to eliminate herpes from the picture.

Terri
Helpful - 0

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