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A Typical Amibguous STD Question

Hello all,

First of all, I've read through these forums and kind of cringed at the incessant (albeit understandable) questioning and requestioning of certain users when community answers don't satisfy that nagging feeling of being uncertain towards what might or might not be going on in their body. So full disclosure, I might fall into that group. I've spent the past month sifting through information on stds all over the internet, arriving at contradictory conclusions and feeling more alienated than ever from any potential answer.

I'm a 23 y/o uncircumcised male university student and I've had 7 female sexual partners in my lifetime. On April 23rd of this year I had unprotected oral and vaginal sex with a girl I knew from school. I consistently use condoms and this was my first unprotected episode since my long term girlfriend in highschool. I had no symptoms for weeks following the episode aside from a cold that lasted about five days toward the end of May. On Thursday July 7th I had protected sex/unprotected oral with a different girl. The following day I began to feel an intermittent interior pressure/discomfort in my penis/genital area. I have trouble being specific about the feeling because the symptoms themselves seemed vague/ambiguous. But after reading different information sites, I wrote down urethral awareness and pressure/a dull ache in the penis base/perineum/testicles/behind my testicles. The symptoms were on and off and did not increase or decrease in severity over the following three days. Sunday the 10th I found a small amount of bright red blood on tissue paper after I wiped my rectum after defecating. Like the goof I am, I went to the local hospital's emergency ward out of anxiety. I don't think the attendants there were too happy with me. After a brief examination of my testicles the health professional said that if I had an STD I would be in pain since he applied pressure or pinched some area of my testicles. This gave me some relief but the sensation continued intermittently. I also noticed a minimal amount of mucus in my stool on one other occasion.

Two days later (11 weeks and change after the initial unprotected act) I visited the local sexual health center for drop in blood (HIV/Hep/Syph) evaluation and a urinalysis/urethral swab/physical. Unfortunately there is no HSV blood test available where I live. I described my symptoms which included my tongue having a thin white coating and several painless pink colored dots in the middle (unsure of when it developed or if it was truly out of the ordinary) and a grouping of small (less than 1mm) light fleshy dots on either side of a vein under my upper foreskin. I have visible fordyce spots on my shaft and these seemed to stem from that. The doctor suggested they were a feature of my penis. I received my results over the phone and was really relieved that everything came back negative (although HIV requires 12 weeks/Six months for definitive results). In the meantime I did try the infamous spittle test for yeast and the glass of water did collect a separate layer sediment on the bottom.  

The sensation continued intermittently so I returned to the clinic on August 4th for an additional physical exam with a different doctor. The majority of that conversation had to do with anxiety in addition to an examination of my mouth (which the doctor again felt was a natural abnormality and didn't resemble any case of oral HPV she'd ever seen). Furthermore she applied vinegar to my penis with a swab and saw no other evidence of HPV.

I visited my GP on August 11th and he sent me for blood work (repeating the HIV test) and a urinalysis, both of which I had done the following day. This Saturday evening one part of my upper foreskin was visibly redder than usual along with a splotch of red on my glans around my urethra. As of this morning it looks entirely gone.

I am an avid cyclist (cause of sporadic perineum tenderness?) and a student so leading up to the symptoms my diet wasn't so hot (not eating on certain days/eating poorly when I did). I have not eaten red meat/pork for the past 7 years and so I've often filled up my diet with far too many carbohydrates. Furthermore up until a few days after I began experiencing symptoms I was a habitual marijuana user and filterless tobacco smoker (as I felt that when I was high the pressure/ache was worse, most likely meaning I fixated on it more. It's kind of pathetic that it takes an episode like this to make you reevaluate your health. Successively, in the days leading up to the onset of these symptoms I consumed more alcohol than I'm used to as if I drink too much I have absolutely massive hangovers the following day. I've also lost about 15 pounds in the last month but it's kind of typical for me this time of year.      

Sorry for this wealth of information, but I've been a mess this past month and I'm currently taking courses so my mental state is having a profound impact on how I organize my life. I've bounced between HIV/NGU/Yeast Infection Balantis/Prostatis/Atypical HSV even thyroid or kidney problems. The atypical hsv scares me the most as many internet posts regarding indefinite/ambiguous genital symptoms take a doomsday tone of you must have atypical herpes. I've had no lesions/blisters/cuts of any kind and experienced no itchiness or discharge but I have had these genital issues that range from pressure to an ache to a pinch off and on for the past five plus weeks.

Thanks for the forum for me to just get this out and thanks for reading.
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Avatar universal
Thanks so much Daniel, it's amazing how the words of a total stranger can offer so much in comfort.
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Avatar universal
Good to have a complete history there. I would say this to you: stop worrying! If you've shown no symptoms consistent with Herpes and tested negative for everything else then don't worry about it. The symptoms you have experienced are entirely consistent with a) alcohol, b) cycling and c) anxiety.

What's probably happening is a combination of prostate aggravation due to the cycling - this can refer odd sensations throughout the groin area, intermittent thrush causing the redness and excessive alcohol consumption can sometimes aggravate the urethra too. And of course anxiety will amplify these symptoms. With the exception of the alcohol, I've had all of the above.

My advice: forget about any STD concerns. Stop sending yourself nuts by reading about it online. Don't worry unless you get an outbreak of what looks like HSV sores - and I'm sure you've googled them enough to know what they typically look like, and how they differ from thrush.
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