Is there still anything to worry about?

[worried2545]

About a year ago I started getting symptoms that I thought were possibly herpes. It started with a general itchiness in the genital area, with a feeling of my skin crawling especially in the scrotum.  After a couple of days this feeling subsided and progressed into open lesions like long fissures in my groin fold that were wet to the touch, pain on the skin surface at the point of the lesion and pain inside the groin itself, either in the nerve or lymph nodes, tiredness, sickness and a sense of being unwell.  I assumed some of the tiredness, nausea and sense of sickness was down to anxiety but I still had real symptoms that couldn't be attributed to anxiety.

I didn't go to the doctor the first time but shortly after the lesions in my groin fold recurred so I went to the doctors.  Having read up on the internet I was concerned about the symptoms and spoke to the doctor about my worries that it was herpes.  She examined me, thought it was most likely a fungal infection and said she was 95% sure it wasn't herpes and prescribed me clotrimazole.  

My worries remained without definitive test results and the lesions came back 2 or 3 more times.  I have been more physically active in the last 18 months that previously so the fungal diagnosis was a possibility. However, about 9 months later, my wife had a swelling on her labia that turned into a blister.  The infection was at one place on her labia, not spread around.


At this point I paid to have a herpes test as it is not available on the normal std screens.  In the 3 days waiting for the results my wife said that the blister had returned, so I convinced myself that I had infected her with herpes and was extremely anxious waiting for the results.  Honestly, the last 2 days have been sleepless...

The results came today and I was extremely surprised, relieved and extremely happy:

HERPES SIMPLEX ANTIBODIES                                                                                                        
H.S.V. I (IgG)                Negative 0.443 Index (Neg <0.9)                                                                    
H.S.V. II (IgG)               Negative 0.193 Index (Neg <0.9)                                                                    
COMMENT :                 No serological evidence of HSV Type I & II infection in this specimen

So a couple of questions, these results come 12 months after my initial fears started.  Can I safely put aside the possibility of HSV now?  Do my symptoms potentially sound like any other STD and if not are our symptoms just a coincidence or could I have passed on a fungal infection or something to her?

Thanks

[worried2545]

Thanks for the reply Grace.

[gracefromHHP]

correct, no reason to think it's herpes at this point.

definitely you and your spouse should follow up on any continued symptoms. Fungal infections can cause these symptoms but you also can get them from MRSA infections and other bacteria too. Make sure they swab the lesions to look for evidence of fungus or bacterial infections to get better answers.

best of luck getting to the bottom of this!

grace