Dr. Hansfield, thanks for all you do here to address people's concerns.
I posted 6 months ago about concerns over a brief encounter with a sex worker, where there was protected vaganial sex and unprotected oral. I was tested 2 weeks after exposure and all tests came back negative. My HSV 2 was a .25 IGG.
I have not really been concerned since, I know my risk was low, but possible. And you response made me feel more relazed about the potential exposure.
About 2 weeks ago, I started some genital itching (I frequently have had this all my life), but this seemed more pronounced. I also had a precived itching inside my penis - but that could have been in my head.
A couple of days later, 2 things occured.
1) wearing what I precieve to be tight pants, I rubbed a 'raw place' at the base of my scrotum.
2) during mastrabation, I rubbed a raw place on my penis (this also has happened before - when I know I was negative for any STD).
These raw places were gone in about 3 or 4 days. There was no scabbing on my penis, but small scabbing on the base of my scrotum.
Additionally, I had headaches and ear ringing for 2 days prior to the onset of the itching, and have since been treated for an ear infection. I also had a low-grade fever during this period.
Now, I am concerned about what I see as a small pin-head type pimple on my penis where the raw place was about 8 days ago. I goes away when examined and is not sore.
I have had no additional incidents of exposure since the previous incident 2 months ago.
With all the information available about Herpes symptoms, I don't know what to expect or when to expect it. As you are aware, the range of symptoms is almost everything including flu-like symptoms, and the timing of all this stuff has made me nervious and uncomfortable.
So with that background, I have 2 questions:
1) does this sound like HSV 2 to you?
2) should I be retested?
Thank you again for the service you provide.