A related discussion,
help was started.
Thank you Dr. Hook.
I have pursued this issue only because I do not want to unknowingly bring anything into a future relationship. I will accept the overwhelming evidence as it stands and move past this. Thank you for your patience with me and continued responses.
You seem to be focused on herpes and I am not sure why. You have lesions that were looked at by a health care provider who felt that your rash was not HSV. You asked about HSV on this forum and were told more reasons why this was unlikely to be herpes. Now you have a negative test for HSV at a time when over 75% of persons who had gotten HSV would have a positive test and that too is negative. If I were you I would stop this non-productive pursuit of herpes and move on with your life. You can keep testing and sooner or later you will probably get a false positive test but as on now, there is, once again no reason to even think that you have herpes, My advice would be to accept that you do not have herpes and to not pursue it further. EWH
Dr. Hook,
I had the herpeselect test administered at a little over 8 weeks post exposure (59 days) and received a negative result <.90 for both HSV 1 & 2. Understanding this result is not definitive, I was wondering what my best course of action would be in the upcoming months. Should I retest at 3, 4, and/or 6 months? I also will include, as a side note, I have tested negative for all other infections besides HIV and was planning on testing for HIV when I retest for HSV.
Again, thank you for your help.
Little change to my prior advice. I think that if the rash is still there, your interests would be best served by a return visit to yor doctor or, if you are unsure about his/her opinion, to another doctor (dermatologist?) to help sort this out.
The lesions still sound nothing at all like HSV. A herpes IgG assay will tell you if you have herpes or not but even if you do, do not tell you that this rash is herpes, nor when you got herpes if you have it. EWH
Dr. Hook, I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question. I understand why pictures are probably not helpful.
I believe due to my reliance on the picture I was a little vague on some of the details.
1) The examining physician ruled out HSV partially on his estimation of there being “nothing to swab.” Thus, no culture was taken. He felt as though I had inflamed skin due to friction.
2) My friend told me she has not noticed anything out of the ordinary but has never been tested.
3) The rash was on the underside of my penis and seemed to begin at the base as a red patch and then diffuse out into red “dots” on the underside of the shaft as it worked its way toward the head. It covered quite a large area of the underside.
I know these factors probably do not change your previous advice but I wanted to present them.
I’m contemplating whether or not I should have an IgG blood test for HSV done. Would you advise I have the test done at the 3 month mark?
I have read through many of the threads on this site and hold both your and Dr Handsfield’s opinions in highest regard. I appreciate your time and help.
Dr. Handsfield and I share the forum. You got me. FYI, the reason we share the forum is because we have worked together for nearly 30 years and while our verbiage styles vary, we have never disagreed on management strategies or advice to clients.
Sorry, we do not look at pictures on this forum. On some occasions you can get pictures looked at on the Dermatology forum but to be honest, a picture that "looks like" your rash is rarely helpful. Let's view this form a different perspective, i.e. does this sound like herpes. than answer is no - here is why:
1. You do not know if your friend has herpes. Even if she/he does, most exposures do not lead to transmission of infection.
2. The location is wrong. Most genital herpes occurs on the penile shaft, not at the base.
3. A health care professional evaluated the lesion and felt it was unlikely to be herpes. While you are right that much herpes is missed, it is missed because lesions are denied and evaluation is not sought. You sought evaluation and that evaluation is that you did not have infection
4. Initial episodes of herpes typically last two-three weeks,. not just a week or so.
For all of these reasons, taken together, it is unlikely that you have HSV. Should the rash recur, you might want to re-visit your doctor and get a culture or PCR test from the lesion. My guess is that it will not recur. EWH