Welcome back to the forum.
There is little in your story, either now or in your previous threads on the dermatology and herpes community forums, to suggest genital herpes. The location of the lesions you described is atypical (although by no means impossible) and so is your description of the lesions themselves.
The only other STDs that conceivably could cause this sort of thing are syphilis and warts. Warts don't cause open sores, but a pre-existing warty area can become irritated and ulcerated, leaving behind the warts themselves as the explanation for the hardened area after the ulcer has healed. Syphilis is extremely unlikely for a number of reasons, but testing is easy, and better safe than sorry. (I've never heard of a "distinctive herpes crater", and that description doesn't help me judge the cause.)
There are many non-STD problems that could explain this, but we don't speculate on this forum about problems other than STDs, so I'll leave it at that.
I recommend professional examination, preferably by a dermatologist, and would suggest you have blood tests for syphilis and HSV -- unless the dermatologist is confident neither of these is a serious possibility. If tested, I predict negative results on both. Feel free to return with a follow-up comment and let me know the results.
Best wishes-- HHH, MD
Doctor Handsfield,
Thanks for your you great work here, and especially your thoroughness in reading my other recent posts. I have had a wart, interestingly, but it was many years ago and on the shaft of my penis, thus unlikely to be related to this case. I'm sure the virus from that is quite clear by now and I'm no longer concerned about it.
For what it's worth, I have already made an appointment with my dermatologist. I would like to see them simply due to their familiarity with my medical history concerning my groin are and its issues.Unfortunately, they're backed up for a while so I've got a bit of a wait while I struggle with my disposition hypochondria. Had anyone said it sounded like a clear case of Herpes I would have perhaps found a way to get the testing done sooner. As is, I'll wait and try my best not to worry, and I will, of course, post a follow-up once I get some actual results.
Thanks again. I imagine it can't be easy dealing with people's intense and irrational fears on a daily basis, especially when those fears are more of a superstitious than a medically-informed kind. You and Dr. Hook deserve more thanks for what you do on here than most of us could possibly manage to convey.
Thanks for the kind words.