friction burn or herpes

[mattinva]

I am a 30 yr old male. After masturbation I noticed I had really dry skin on my penis and that I had rubbed two small, I call them friction sores onto my penis. I have experienced similar "friction sores" before so I didn't pay them much attention. The next day or maybe 2 days later I again masterbated and irritated the small sores. They began to get bigger and itch like any little sore would do, but as I itched... it got worse and they got bigger and almost looked infected. I have noticed that around the biggest one has gotten inflamed and sticks up like a small cluster of bumps. its not really painful at all, its more of a tingly feeling or numb feeling. It doesn't hurt to touch the cluster and I don't have any other sores on or around my groin area. Also when I urinate, it kind of has a tingly feeling at first, no discharge or anything like that. I jus last night applied calamine lotion to the area and it is heeling great. The sores are heeling and the inflamation is going down but is still there. I'm wondering if I contracted herpes, I did have unprotected sex with a girl 2 weeks ago or do I jus have an infected sore. I didn't really treat the small sores til the calamine lotion. Please help

[petal130]

Did he not do any testing? A visual diagnosis is wrong 1/3 of the time. A swab/culture of symptoms is necessary. Antibiotic ointment won't treat herpes, it's for bacterial infections.

So you think that having herpes means dying alone? Interesting. That would mean more than 1/2 the adult population would be alone!

As to your last questions, did you ask your doctor these??

[mattinva]

he did do the swab test. it was actually the only real "pain" ive experienced through this whole thing. he was digging the swab into the sore because he said he couldnt get anything on the swab, no blood or anything??? it took 4 swabs and 4 attempts at, i mean really digging at the sore out before he got one. i havent felt anything that even closely resembled pain like that in this whole time. as for the ointment... i was asking because to me it appears to be doing a better job than anything. i had it on for like 10 hrs and it looked to be 70-80% heeled this morning, now since i was prescribed zovirax cream it doesnt appear to be doing nearly as good as the ointment was doing?? if its not herpes would the zovirax still heel it or no? ive had this on for like 7-8 hrs now. as for my questions to the dr, i told him everything that i put on here and as soon as he looked at it he said it was herpes and went to get the culture tests. i tried to tell him that i never really saw any bumps or them burst and he was convinced it was herpes. he said in his "opinion" it was herpes.@gracefromHHP i saw on another forum you said you most likely dont get it from one encounter? the only sexual encounter ive had in like a month was the one and first time with a girl 2 weeks ago so does that apply here as well? im sorry to ask so many questions its just very emotionally draining thinking about this, its hard to explain in todays society that its very common to have this. he also said i could have had it for years and its only now having an outbreak, is this true? im just holding on to hope that its just some other infection but i guess if he thinks that its herpes it probably is. i just have lots of questions about life after this, like conceiving kids, sexual relations with my wife if i ever could find one while having this... jus stressed!!!!!!

[gracefromHHP]

zovirax cream really doesn't do anything for herpes. it hasn't been recommended for using on genital herpes lesions for many, many years now.

at this point all you can do is wait for your lesion culture results but it sounds like they will be negative regardless.  follow up with a type specific herpes igg blood test too.


life after herpes? the same as it was before except for something, you have to avoid sex because you have a recurrence. You can have sex every which way you can, you can have a family - it's not the end of anything at all.

[mattinva]

the cream cost me $50.00 with insurance!!! and your telling me that its not a good medicine? why is it not recommended? are the blood tests better? what does the culture test tell you? and if the ointment was working before should i go back to that? thanks again

[mattinva]

also... (sorry) why do you say the tests will be negative? are these not accurate tests?

[gracefromHHP]

acyclovir cream only heals herpes lesions half a day sooner than using a placebo.   darn shame your provider isn't up to date and caused you to spend that sort of money needlessly :(

the culture would ideally tell you if you had herpes going on. unfortunately there is a high false negative rate and sounds like there wasn't much to culture if it took them 4 tries.