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Do I have Genital Herpes?
Okay so really long story and I will try to organize it as best as I can. I am a 23 year old male.
So last summer from the span of May to late July I had been with two men. I engaged in oral sex with both and anal sex with one but wore protection. At the end of the July I went into my doctors office to get a routine screening and the last time I had one was about a year ago. A couple days after getting tested I get a call from my doctor saying I tested positive for Type-2 genital herpes. A couple hours later I received a call from my nurse practitioner who was the one who actually ordered the tests for me ad told me I was misdiagnosed. She said I was actually positive for HSV-1 not HSV-2. She told me my doctor read it wrong because he was going based off my IGM results which were 1.10.
I was extremely relieved to hear that. A couple weeks later I began to experience a burning and tingling in my urethra. It burned to pee and I felt like I always had to go. The first day was the worst with cloudy, and smelly urine. But as the days went on it became progressively less painful. I went in to see my doctor again on the third day of this and he again was asking if I had any open sores in my genital areas and I said no. So he chalked it up to Prostatitis and took a urine culture. He called me back in a couple hours to let me know the urine culture came back negative for any form of bacteria. He still said though he believed for it be some form of Prostatitis. As mentioned earlier the pain became less and less every day. It went on roughly for about two weeks. After that a small patch of red started to develop on the side of my penis and was itchy. It became more itchy the more I though about it and it was starting to worry me. My NP gave me medication for a yeast infection and after taking the pill she gave me the itching stopped after about a week but the red spot is still there to this day. (This all took place between August and September 2013.)
Fast forward to December, I now have a steady boyfriend and both got tested in December and both are clean (I had not been with anyone since July). A yellowish whitish bump formed right at the base of my penis. It was itchy and tough and finally when I was able to pop it, it bled. Then two more formed next to it in my pubic hair region both white heads. One of them bled and the other one nothing came out of it when I scraped it away. The big original one went away after about two weeks. The others only took a couple days to disappear. I chalked it up to folliculutis of the pubic region.
Sorry this is so long but I really wanted to get my facts straight. I know i'm testing positive for HSV-1 but I'm just concerned where it is on my body. I'm not sure if i had it as a kid. I know I've had canker sores in my mouth my whole life. I know canker and cold sores are not the same, but I did read as a child you can have cold sores in your mouth. I cannot recall if i've had a cold sore actually on my lips before or around my mouth. Should I be concerned that I may have HSV-1 in my genital region?
So last summer from the span of May to late July I had been with two men. I engaged in oral sex with both and anal sex with one but wore protection. At the end of the July I went into my doctors office to get a routine screening and the last time I had one was about a year ago. A couple days after getting tested I get a call from my doctor saying I tested positive for Type-2 genital herpes. A couple hours later I received a call from my nurse practitioner who was the one who actually ordered the tests for me ad told me I was misdiagnosed. She said I was actually positive for HSV-1 not HSV-2. She told me my doctor read it wrong because he was going based off my IGM results which were 1.10.
I was extremely relieved to hear that. A couple weeks later I began to experience a burning and tingling in my urethra. It burned to pee and I felt like I always had to go. The first day was the worst with cloudy, and smelly urine. But as the days went on it became progressively less painful. I went in to see my doctor again on the third day of this and he again was asking if I had any open sores in my genital areas and I said no. So he chalked it up to Prostatitis and took a urine culture. He called me back in a couple hours to let me know the urine culture came back negative for any form of bacteria. He still said though he believed for it be some form of Prostatitis. As mentioned earlier the pain became less and less every day. It went on roughly for about two weeks. After that a small patch of red started to develop on the side of my penis and was itchy. It became more itchy the more I though about it and it was starting to worry me. My NP gave me medication for a yeast infection and after taking the pill she gave me the itching stopped after about a week but the red spot is still there to this day. (This all took place between August and September 2013.)
Fast forward to December, I now have a steady boyfriend and both got tested in December and both are clean (I had not been with anyone since July). A yellowish whitish bump formed right at the base of my penis. It was itchy and tough and finally when I was able to pop it, it bled. Then two more formed next to it in my pubic hair region both white heads. One of them bled and the other one nothing came out of it when I scraped it away. The big original one went away after about two weeks. The others only took a couple days to disappear. I chalked it up to folliculutis of the pubic region.
Sorry this is so long but I really wanted to get my facts straight. I know i'm testing positive for HSV-1 but I'm just concerned where it is on my body. I'm not sure if i had it as a kid. I know I've had canker sores in my mouth my whole life. I know canker and cold sores are not the same, but I did read as a child you can have cold sores in your mouth. I cannot recall if i've had a cold sore actually on my lips before or around my mouth. Should I be concerned that I may have HSV-1 in my genital region?
Okay i'll do that. Even if I do test positive for HSV-1 that does not mean it has to be genital, correct?
If you retest in 2 months and your score increases significently then it would most often be a recent infection, like some exposure around 1 1/2 or 2 months ago. You dont necessarily have flu like symtpoms. At this point we just dont know. Maybe its a false positive as anything below 3 would be considered false until a retest.
What im saying is that a score like yours is most likely either a recent infection or a false positive. Someone giving you unprotected oral sex that has hsv1 oral can certainly pass it on to you.
Most often a 2.95 is either a new infection or a false positive. Retest in 2 months to see if it goes up as with that score it just might be genital.
Wow, I read the whole thing. Ok, Your HSV 1 is probably just in you mouth like I have it and not in your genitals. 80% of people have HSV1 i.e cold sore. You seem to just have pimples or ingrown hairs in your genital area. HOWEVER, you can pass HSV 1 to someone or they can pass it to you. This is why I say to wear a condom even for oral sex. It is not sexy, but it will prevent spreading.
Hi, from what you describe your genital issues dont appear herpes related sore as are not white heads or yellowish puss filled. It would be more of your hsv1 is oral from childhood. The only way to confirm what the penis sores are is to have a new sore swabbed with in 48 hours after appearing. Let us know the test numbers of the hsv1 as if are high, like 5 and over (as most labs stop counting at 5 ) it would also mean an old infection like oral from childhood.
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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.
