I went to my gyno and had the discharge checked out. She looked at it during my office visit and said she sees a little extra yeast and a little extra bacteria but that the amounts are so minute that it is probably my normal discharge. (I was on my last day of my period at this time. Could this change what she sees under the microscope this day?)
I explained everything to her and she did a HerpeSelect test and I'm awaiting results.
Meanwhile.....I still have a sore throat but no other symptoms. It's been nearly 6 weeks since I last had sex and it's been 19 days of off and on sore throat. It may be a week before I get the HerpeSelect results. I should have had my gyno do a throat culture for strep but she didn't and I was already on antibiotics when all this started anyway (Doxicycline).
So.....should I wait for my herpes results or see someone now about this sore throat? Is it dangerous to wait a month before seeing someone about a sore throat?
Cervicitis not due to either gonorrhea or chlamydia is a pretty big mystery. Several causes have been proposed but either research disproved them or high-quality studies have not been done. Happily, such cases are not known to cause any serious health outcome, i.e. no pelvic infection, infertility, etc as can follow gonorrhea or chlamydia, so most likely there is no major health threat to you.
Herpes clearly causes some cases but only a small minority. Most but not all cases of herpetic cervicitis are accompanied by typical external genital lesions.
1) Herpes is possible, and is slightly favored by the simultaneous occurrence of systemic symptoms (malaise, etc). Initial herpes sometimes is accompanied by sore throat. My guess is that herpes doesn't explain any of this; but if it does, the symptoms will resolve soon. In other words, chronic/persistent symptoms beyond 3-4 weeks would be strong evidence against HSV. But if no other explanation becomes apparent, diagnostic tests for HSV would be reasonable. (Search the the forum for "herpes diagnosis", "genital herpes", and "HerpeSelect test" for many discussions about herpes diagnosis.)
2) Yes, 14 days is plenty of time. Tests for gonorrhea and chlamydia generally are positive within a couple days of exposure.
3) Yes, follow up on the vaginal discharge. Recent research suggests some cases of cervicitis may accompany bacterial vaginosis, i.e. overgrowth of otherwise normal vaginal bacteria. Sometimes an additional course of another antibiotic (e.g., azithromycin) is worth a try; or metronidazole if you have BV.
4) This probably isn't related to HPV. However--and not to frighten you, just to suggest you have another pap smear and raise this with your doc--some cases of cervical dysplasia or more advance pre-cancerous disease may mimic cervicitis. This should be checked out, just to be safe.
Finally, the other rational approach here wopuld be to contact your partners and suggest they get checked, perhaps at a local STD clinic. Diagnostic tests aren't perfect in women, and sometimes a problem shows up in a partner that isn't recognized in the patient herself.
Best wishes-- HHH, MD