HerpeSelect test 10 weeks

[Fherrera]

Hello Dr. I have posted before on you site regarding HIV testing. At around 3 weeks I had a test done for Chlamydia, gonorrhea came back NEG. and he told me the discharge was a NGU. It is now 14 weeks and for the last 2-3 weeks I have a little like feeling in the tip of your penis dose not bother me when I use the restroom but it is a feeling I never had there also for about the same time I have had like soreness on the back of my legs. I got the HIV test at 13 weeks NEG. But what has me worried is Herpes I did that test 10 weeks  HerpeSelect and came back type I 0.14 and type II .016 I have no bumps nor and thing like that but just that little feeling at the tip like if a little bit of urine was going to come out. Can it be Herpes? Or is it just that after the NGU it is still bothering me????? Thank you for your time. and all the help.

[thenyguy]

A related discussion, Weird Pinching and Marks under head of penis. was started.

[Fherrera]

Thank you Dr. I also just found this that helped a lot also......It is about time I found something from the CDC that help with the window time on test........from CDC......Communicating the Meaning of the Rapid HIV Test Results

Negative Rapid HIV Test Results

During the initial visit, the provider can definitively tell clients whose rapid HIV test result is negative that they are not infected, unless they have had a recent (within 3 months) known or possible exposure to HIV. Retesting should be recommended for these clients because sufficient time needs to elapse in order before antibodies develop that can be detected by the test.

Look at this site: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/rt-counseling.htm

Thank you aing and I wish you and your famaly the best.....

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Testing beyond 3 months is virtually never necessary.  Search the forum threads for "time to positive HIV test", and look in particular for those in which I offered a mathematical/probability analysis, which shows why for most people it doesn't much matter whether they are tested at 6 weeks, 12 weeks, or later.

HHH, MD

[XKIVEL]

Is really hard to imagine that there are people like us in the same country, going threw the same pain, depression and anxiety. I like both of you, had the same kind of symptoms. At first I thought it was herpes, it started out of nowhere, I will say after 14 months of having unproctected oral sex. Well things just didn't match up for me. I started reading the symptoms of every STD, as the time passed I started to get more scared. In other words I was just guessing at my symptoms. I finally had the courage to go and had a test done. Everything came back negative. But they advice me to go and see a urologist, I did and he prescribe me some antibiotics. Which I am still taking right now. But like the doctor from this wonderful website has said, is just something that in time is going to go away. When I am really depress thats when i start to feel the little burning on the tip of the penis. But now i am coffident that is nothing serious. So my advice to you, is to stop worrying a bit, if the test indicated that you don't have nothing serious, is probably just your anxiety and depression. We've being threw the same steps, not only just but a lot of people who are here, with the same questions and problems.

[Fherrera]

Thank you Dr. and all for the post. I know you do not like when we ask two questions but if you like you can delete this on. What will be the reson places like the CDC and some Dr. recomend testing for HIV after 24 weeks or 6 mouth????? Thank you and sorry for the 2nd qeustion.....

[binky2005]

My friend, I know exactly what you're going through.  I had similiar "symptoms" and was utterly convinced I had herpes for more than 4 months, even though all the tests (even at 17 weeks) showed that I do not have HSV-1, much less HSV-2.

Trust the 10 week test, even if Dr. HHH cannot give you 100% assurance.  Herpes rarely, if ever, presents like your symptoms and is never as persistent as your symptoms sound to be.

Just to give you a sense of what anxiety can do.  During my herpes scare, I used to get this internal pinching feeling near the tip of my penis. I was utterly convinced it was herpes. What else could it be?

Once and awhile this pinching feeling would go away for a few days but it would always come back.  Around Christmas time, the feeling had gone away for 4 days, and I was home at my parents place driving my dad's car. I had forgotten to turn off the high beams, and so a cop pulled me over.  Just as the cop was approaching my car window to "talk", I could feel my anxiety level increase and the pinching feeling in my penis immediately came back. I realized then and there that this feeling was just anxiety--muscle spasms from focusing and worrying about the area so much.

Since then, I haven't had the feeling.  My point is, relax, you don't have herpes.  

[Fherrera]

By the way should I retest if so when?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

The symptoms you describe are not particularly suggestive of genital herpes and you can rely completely on the HerpeSelect results at 10 weeks; herpes does not explain your symptoms.  Residual pain/discomfort from your NGU is a better bet, but does not necessarily indicate continued infection.

Pain or discomfort is common after injury or infection of any body part, long after healing is complete (think of all the people with sore ankle months after the sprain has healed by all measurable criteria; or those with unexplained back pain or headache).  In other words, if your health care provider cannot find any evidence of continuing inflammation in your urethra, you can stop worrying about it.  Just live with the discomfort, especially since your description suggests it isn't very severe.  It will fade with time.  Almost certainly you have nothing that can harm your health in the future, or that of a sex partner.

Good luck-- HHH, MD