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Herpes, Fungus, Balanitis, Yeast, UTI...what is wrong with me?!?!?
I've been reading other's stories trying to figure this out but I can't, so here it goes...sorry, it's a long one:
I'm a 30 year old man and I've been in a relationship with my girlfriend for 3 years now. We were both tested and were negative for STDs when we started dating and have had unprotected sex since then. Where the story starts, we had unprotected sex on 3/21/13. Then 3 days later, I VERY STUPIDLY hooked up with a girl I met online during the afternoon on 3/24/13. She gave me brief unprotected oral sex (she didn't have any signs of lesions or sores on her mouth). That night I started to feel a weird tingling/uncomfortable feeling in my penis and there were a few small little red spots on the penis head (I'm uncircumcised and I have been getting this as well as some painful redness/irritation under my foreskin after sex or masturbation for a few years now). This continued through the week. There was never any discharge and no red spots on my penis ever turned into blisters or oozed any pus or anything. They would subside in a day or so. I emailed the girl I had oral sex with to see if she had any STDs. She said no. Later in the week I asked her again since the pain was still there and she said no again. Not surprisingly, she was offended that I kept asking so she told me I was crazy and not to contact her again.
6 days after the oral sex, I went to see my PCP and discussed the situation. She examined the red spots and didn't see anything to indicate an STD. She still did a urine sample and that came out negative for Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and any UTI or bacterial infections. She also gave me the antibiotics to get rid of Chlamydia/Gonorrhea. The discomfort and pain continued for another 2-3 weeks, off and on throughout the day. The pain felt like it was inside my urethra. Sometimes it felt like the pain would move into my lower abdomen or into my legs, but I didn't know if I was making this up in my head or not. Still no discharge. I went back to my PCP for a regular checkup on 4/26/13. By then pretty much all discomfort/pain had subsided, though I would feel it every once in a while. To be safe, my doctor did a full blood test for STD's (including Herpes). I got the test results back a week later and everything was NEGATIVE (though I didn't get any numbers on the tests). Following those results and the lack of symptoms, I felt like I was in the clear! I had been reading A LOT on this website and others and decided it must have been something like balanitis or a fungal infection from being uncircumcised, so I started applying Lotrimin anti-fungal cream on my penis which didn't seem to bother it at all and seemed to keep any redness or soreness away.
My girlfriend and I then had unprotected sex the morning of 5/11/13 (the first time we've had unprotected sex since this incident). I don't know if this was just terrible coincidence or what but the next day I started to feel the discomfort in my penis/urethra again. Then the following night, my girlfriend mentioned to me that she wanted to break up with me (or at least take some time apart). This news hit me like a freight train. Side note: she doesn't know about my STUPID moment of infidelity...the break up is unrelated if that matters at all.
That night I couldn't sleep that well and to make matters worse, the pain in my urethra was at the maximum pain it had ever been. The next day it continued. My penis head also seemed to be red/inflamed, and the pain seemed the worst AFTER urination (no burning during though). The pain continued throughout the week, fluctuating between almost nothing to very discomforting. Again, it seemed to move around. It would go from the urethra, to my lower abdomen area, to my lower back, to my thighs, sometimes in my testicles, and then back around. I also started to feel jolts of pains in my leg muscles. I even think I was getting some in my arms at times too, but things have been so stressful for me, I don't really know what's real and what's not anymore.
The pain again continued, so on 5/18/13, I went to an Emergency Care MD, since my PCP wasn't available. I explained the whole story and the doctor examined my penis. I had a few painless red spots/bumps again, but she said those are completely normal and don't look like herpes or anything else that I should be worried about. They did a urine test again and again gave me antibiotics for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea. A few days later, I got a call from them and the urine sample was again NEGATIVE for everything. She had referred me to a urologist whom I met with on 5/23. Again, I mentioned the whole story. He asked about pain from ejaculation. Sadly I have only masturbated one or two times since this all started. I did notice pain in my perineum when I ejaculated the one time. Before he even examined me, he diagnosed me with Prostatitis and CPPS (he never did an actual prostate exam...he only examined my penis area). He gave me a 10-day dose of Levaquin (levofloxacin). I started to take this that day. Even before I went to see him that day, it seemed like the pain in my urethra was starting to subside. Finally, it seemed like there was light at the end of the tunnel! I had a diagnosis, the pain was subsiding, and I had the treatment to help with this!
However, on 5/25/13, I woke up in the middle of the night from a wet dream. Yeah, I still get these every few weeks. I cleaned myself up and went back to bed. When I woke up a few hours later, I noticed my urethra was a little wet. There wasn't much there but I had a little clear, sticky fluid coming out. I figured this was just left over semen from the wet dream. Then about an hour or so later, I noticed something on my penis head. It was one small raised papule...about 1/2 mm in size. To me, it just seemed like a normal papule on the penis head that was red/inflamed. It was painful to touch. Then I noticed that I had some redness on the right side of my penis shaft under the foreskin, similar to what I sometimes get after sex or masturbation. This was also painful to touch. There were 4-6 raised red spots and when I pulled my foreskin back tightly, I could see little blood vessels emanating from them as well. I thought maybe this was irritation from my wet dream and sleeping for some time with semen on my penis, so I applied some Lotrimin cream. Later that evening, I had checked myself again and things seemed to be a little worse. The redness was larger and now there seemed to be a few more red spots/bumps...all about 1/2 to 1 mm in size. I could feel the pain in my penis now. I kept examining these but they never blistered or became ulcers. There were just tiny raised spots with redness around them on my penis shaft under my foreskin and a few right at the edge where the penis head meets the shaft. I was also feeling jolts in my muscles again.
The next day 5/26/13, I went back to the Emergency Care MD. They had my notes from last time, so I gave them the update from the urologist, the wet dream, and the spots I have found and the lingering pain. The doctor (different from last time) examined me and said it might be herpes or it might be something else. He was very vague. They did a swab of the infected area under my foreskin and I am currently awaiting the results. He wouldn't say for sure that it was herpes but he gave me a 10-day prescription of Valtrex and told me to wait for the results. And even if the results are negative, that it could still be herpes and I should get another blood test in a week or so. Yeah, I now know that herpes takes time to show up in blood tests. The red bumps are almost all gone now (never scabbed) but the pain is still in my penis. As you can tell, I am really FREAKING out now and wonder if anyone has any input on what could possibly be wrong with me? This one stupid mistake has ruined my life.
Please help!
I'm a 30 year old man and I've been in a relationship with my girlfriend for 3 years now. We were both tested and were negative for STDs when we started dating and have had unprotected sex since then. Where the story starts, we had unprotected sex on 3/21/13. Then 3 days later, I VERY STUPIDLY hooked up with a girl I met online during the afternoon on 3/24/13. She gave me brief unprotected oral sex (she didn't have any signs of lesions or sores on her mouth). That night I started to feel a weird tingling/uncomfortable feeling in my penis and there were a few small little red spots on the penis head (I'm uncircumcised and I have been getting this as well as some painful redness/irritation under my foreskin after sex or masturbation for a few years now). This continued through the week. There was never any discharge and no red spots on my penis ever turned into blisters or oozed any pus or anything. They would subside in a day or so. I emailed the girl I had oral sex with to see if she had any STDs. She said no. Later in the week I asked her again since the pain was still there and she said no again. Not surprisingly, she was offended that I kept asking so she told me I was crazy and not to contact her again.
6 days after the oral sex, I went to see my PCP and discussed the situation. She examined the red spots and didn't see anything to indicate an STD. She still did a urine sample and that came out negative for Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and any UTI or bacterial infections. She also gave me the antibiotics to get rid of Chlamydia/Gonorrhea. The discomfort and pain continued for another 2-3 weeks, off and on throughout the day. The pain felt like it was inside my urethra. Sometimes it felt like the pain would move into my lower abdomen or into my legs, but I didn't know if I was making this up in my head or not. Still no discharge. I went back to my PCP for a regular checkup on 4/26/13. By then pretty much all discomfort/pain had subsided, though I would feel it every once in a while. To be safe, my doctor did a full blood test for STD's (including Herpes). I got the test results back a week later and everything was NEGATIVE (though I didn't get any numbers on the tests). Following those results and the lack of symptoms, I felt like I was in the clear! I had been reading A LOT on this website and others and decided it must have been something like balanitis or a fungal infection from being uncircumcised, so I started applying Lotrimin anti-fungal cream on my penis which didn't seem to bother it at all and seemed to keep any redness or soreness away.
My girlfriend and I then had unprotected sex the morning of 5/11/13 (the first time we've had unprotected sex since this incident). I don't know if this was just terrible coincidence or what but the next day I started to feel the discomfort in my penis/urethra again. Then the following night, my girlfriend mentioned to me that she wanted to break up with me (or at least take some time apart). This news hit me like a freight train. Side note: she doesn't know about my STUPID moment of infidelity...the break up is unrelated if that matters at all.
That night I couldn't sleep that well and to make matters worse, the pain in my urethra was at the maximum pain it had ever been. The next day it continued. My penis head also seemed to be red/inflamed, and the pain seemed the worst AFTER urination (no burning during though). The pain continued throughout the week, fluctuating between almost nothing to very discomforting. Again, it seemed to move around. It would go from the urethra, to my lower abdomen area, to my lower back, to my thighs, sometimes in my testicles, and then back around. I also started to feel jolts of pains in my leg muscles. I even think I was getting some in my arms at times too, but things have been so stressful for me, I don't really know what's real and what's not anymore.
The pain again continued, so on 5/18/13, I went to an Emergency Care MD, since my PCP wasn't available. I explained the whole story and the doctor examined my penis. I had a few painless red spots/bumps again, but she said those are completely normal and don't look like herpes or anything else that I should be worried about. They did a urine test again and again gave me antibiotics for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea. A few days later, I got a call from them and the urine sample was again NEGATIVE for everything. She had referred me to a urologist whom I met with on 5/23. Again, I mentioned the whole story. He asked about pain from ejaculation. Sadly I have only masturbated one or two times since this all started. I did notice pain in my perineum when I ejaculated the one time. Before he even examined me, he diagnosed me with Prostatitis and CPPS (he never did an actual prostate exam...he only examined my penis area). He gave me a 10-day dose of Levaquin (levofloxacin). I started to take this that day. Even before I went to see him that day, it seemed like the pain in my urethra was starting to subside. Finally, it seemed like there was light at the end of the tunnel! I had a diagnosis, the pain was subsiding, and I had the treatment to help with this!
However, on 5/25/13, I woke up in the middle of the night from a wet dream. Yeah, I still get these every few weeks. I cleaned myself up and went back to bed. When I woke up a few hours later, I noticed my urethra was a little wet. There wasn't much there but I had a little clear, sticky fluid coming out. I figured this was just left over semen from the wet dream. Then about an hour or so later, I noticed something on my penis head. It was one small raised papule...about 1/2 mm in size. To me, it just seemed like a normal papule on the penis head that was red/inflamed. It was painful to touch. Then I noticed that I had some redness on the right side of my penis shaft under the foreskin, similar to what I sometimes get after sex or masturbation. This was also painful to touch. There were 4-6 raised red spots and when I pulled my foreskin back tightly, I could see little blood vessels emanating from them as well. I thought maybe this was irritation from my wet dream and sleeping for some time with semen on my penis, so I applied some Lotrimin cream. Later that evening, I had checked myself again and things seemed to be a little worse. The redness was larger and now there seemed to be a few more red spots/bumps...all about 1/2 to 1 mm in size. I could feel the pain in my penis now. I kept examining these but they never blistered or became ulcers. There were just tiny raised spots with redness around them on my penis shaft under my foreskin and a few right at the edge where the penis head meets the shaft. I was also feeling jolts in my muscles again.
The next day 5/26/13, I went back to the Emergency Care MD. They had my notes from last time, so I gave them the update from the urologist, the wet dream, and the spots I have found and the lingering pain. The doctor (different from last time) examined me and said it might be herpes or it might be something else. He was very vague. They did a swab of the infected area under my foreskin and I am currently awaiting the results. He wouldn't say for sure that it was herpes but he gave me a 10-day prescription of Valtrex and told me to wait for the results. And even if the results are negative, that it could still be herpes and I should get another blood test in a week or so. Yeah, I now know that herpes takes time to show up in blood tests. The red bumps are almost all gone now (never scabbed) but the pain is still in my penis. As you can tell, I am really FREAKING out now and wonder if anyone has any input on what could possibly be wrong with me? This one stupid mistake has ruined my life.
Please help!
Hi Grace,
Coming back on here to give you an update on everything. I still am not sure what's going on with me! Since my last update, I went to see a dermatologist 2 or 3 times who examined me and said this was just a fungal infection. I wasn't too confident in his evaluations, so I went to another dermatologist. She did a swab of the red spots that I get on and off and it was NEGATIVE. I again wasn't too confident with her examination (since it seems like a lot of doctors don't really know too much about herpes besides the classic first outbreak), but I took her word for it and continued on. Then about two months after that in early November 2013, I got VERY painful and persistent blisters on my right pointer finger underneath my nail. She swabbed those and they came back POSITIVE for HSV1. So far, nothing has come back on my finger. One thing that I learned from this was that this pain was 10x as bad as anything I've gotten in my genital area. That pain is fairly consistent but nowhere near as painful as on the finger. The doctor told me that what happened on my finger is completely unrelated to what's happening in my genital area, but could I have somewhere given this to myself? I don't think I ever touch my penis with the back of my finger.
Regarding my problems in the genital area, I still am getting fairly persistent red bumps all over my foreskin and sometimes on the head of my penis. Sometimes when I get them, I have pain with them that comes and goes off and on throughout the day, but they NOT painful to touch. The pain seems to be more inside my penis than topical but is definitely more prevalent when I have those red bumps. I went to a urologist in late January and showed him the bumps and explained my whole story and he dismissed genital herpes regardless of my HSV1 positive status. He suggested circumcision since I am uncircumcised and I am still deciding if I should go through with this (my father had an adult circumcision at about the same age I am now).
I had a very bad outbreak of whatever this is in early February that spread all over my foreskin over a week or so (which came at a stressful time at work). Whenever I get these, I put a prescription antifungal cream on it (Econozole Nitrate) and it typically clears it up pretty quickly and then I stop using it. They never scab at all....at most, they might leave a flake of skin and a little red mark. As an experiment, I continued to apply it EVERY day for over a month and I never got any red bumps. I stopped using it and about a day later, I got a red bump on my foreskin, which has then spread to another area, then another, and has continued as a pretty consistent outbreak until even today! I just started using the antifungal cream again about a week ago and it had pretty much subsided. Then I stopped using it one day this weekend and the next day, I got another red bump on my foreskin on the underside of my penis! Can an antifungal cream prevent herpes breakouts by drying out the foreskin?
As you've read, I've had multiple doctors tell me I don't have genital herpes, including 2 negative swabs. I would be fine with living with whatever this is with no answers, but my fear is in infecting someone else. I just started dating a girl and she gave me unprotected oral sex on Saturday night (the night before I woke up with a red bump!). So I am now freaking out about having possibly infecting her with a cold sore if this is genital HSV1. You can give someone herpes on the lip from oral sex, right? I'm sorry this is so long but I just want to get all the facts out there and hopefully find some answers since this has been going on for over a year now.
Thanks in advance!
Coming back on here to give you an update on everything. I still am not sure what's going on with me! Since my last update, I went to see a dermatologist 2 or 3 times who examined me and said this was just a fungal infection. I wasn't too confident in his evaluations, so I went to another dermatologist. She did a swab of the red spots that I get on and off and it was NEGATIVE. I again wasn't too confident with her examination (since it seems like a lot of doctors don't really know too much about herpes besides the classic first outbreak), but I took her word for it and continued on. Then about two months after that in early November 2013, I got VERY painful and persistent blisters on my right pointer finger underneath my nail. She swabbed those and they came back POSITIVE for HSV1. So far, nothing has come back on my finger. One thing that I learned from this was that this pain was 10x as bad as anything I've gotten in my genital area. That pain is fairly consistent but nowhere near as painful as on the finger. The doctor told me that what happened on my finger is completely unrelated to what's happening in my genital area, but could I have somewhere given this to myself? I don't think I ever touch my penis with the back of my finger.
Regarding my problems in the genital area, I still am getting fairly persistent red bumps all over my foreskin and sometimes on the head of my penis. Sometimes when I get them, I have pain with them that comes and goes off and on throughout the day, but they NOT painful to touch. The pain seems to be more inside my penis than topical but is definitely more prevalent when I have those red bumps. I went to a urologist in late January and showed him the bumps and explained my whole story and he dismissed genital herpes regardless of my HSV1 positive status. He suggested circumcision since I am uncircumcised and I am still deciding if I should go through with this (my father had an adult circumcision at about the same age I am now).
I had a very bad outbreak of whatever this is in early February that spread all over my foreskin over a week or so (which came at a stressful time at work). Whenever I get these, I put a prescription antifungal cream on it (Econozole Nitrate) and it typically clears it up pretty quickly and then I stop using it. They never scab at all....at most, they might leave a flake of skin and a little red mark. As an experiment, I continued to apply it EVERY day for over a month and I never got any red bumps. I stopped using it and about a day later, I got a red bump on my foreskin, which has then spread to another area, then another, and has continued as a pretty consistent outbreak until even today! I just started using the antifungal cream again about a week ago and it had pretty much subsided. Then I stopped using it one day this weekend and the next day, I got another red bump on my foreskin on the underside of my penis! Can an antifungal cream prevent herpes breakouts by drying out the foreskin?
As you've read, I've had multiple doctors tell me I don't have genital herpes, including 2 negative swabs. I would be fine with living with whatever this is with no answers, but my fear is in infecting someone else. I just started dating a girl and she gave me unprotected oral sex on Saturday night (the night before I woke up with a red bump!). So I am now freaking out about having possibly infecting her with a cold sore if this is genital HSV1. You can give someone herpes on the lip from oral sex, right? I'm sorry this is so long but I just want to get all the facts out there and hopefully find some answers since this has been going on for over a year now.
Thanks in advance!
Exact same thing happened to me, I'm 18 cheated on my misses and had unprotected sex, I regret it so much, I've been freaking out about herpies, I got a small red lump shown after a few days and it hasn't gone away since and it's been like a week, my doctor said it doesn't look like herpes but still I'm worried, let me know how it goes for you
The exact same thing is happening to me but I'm 18, would like to here the end result cause I'm freaking out
It is probably worth following up with a WB to confirm your HSV-1 status, but that still won't tell you the location of the infection. It's possible that your first test simply missed it (as it does 1 / 10 times) and that it is a long-established oral infection.
I had a Western Blot done at the Quest Diagnostics lab on W 86th street, but I had to become a phone patient of Terri Warren's to have it ordered. Make an appointment with her through the Westover Heights Clinic (Google it).
I had a Western Blot done at the Quest Diagnostics lab on W 86th street, but I had to become a phone patient of Terri Warren's to have it ordered. Make an appointment with her through the Westover Heights Clinic (Google it).
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You are reading content posted in the Herpes Community
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Millions of people are diagnosed with STDs in the U.S. each year.
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
