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.
Welcome to our Forum. Having read your description of your symptoms, I am confident that what you describe is not "atypical herpes" and is more likely than not an manifestation of your own anxiety over the exposure you describe. Let me share with you the reasons that I am not concerned that this might be herpes:
1. You state you had symptoms as inflammation "instantly" following your exposure. This is in no way consistent with HSV. The symptoms of herpes occur 4-10 days following exposure, no sooner.
2. As you acknowledge, you do not know that your partner had HSV and, even if she did, most exposures to sex partners with HSV do not lead to infection.
3. You have not experienced lesions or sores. If you had herpes you would have.
4. Your various aches and "twitches" are not at all suggestive of HSV but do suggest anxiety as the origin of your symptoms.
Bottom line- your well describe history in no way suggests HSV. You need not be concerned. I hope my comments provide you with reassurance regarding this. EWH
While symptoms such as those that you have described are a frequent source of questions related to symptoms such as yours but there is no evidence that HSV is the cause or that you even have herpes. I am not trying to put you off but I am trying to help you move in the right direction on this problem.
Nothing more to say. Sorry. EWH
Could you please help me out?
Hello,
Dr. I thank you again for your response, it really brought my stress down completely. However, I remain concerned because the muscle twitches in my legs and groin area have continued today plus an aching and numbness on my left side from my buttocks down through my legs along with a dull ache in my left testicle (never happend to me before, and again i can sure you it is a "real" pain). I am concerned because this is continuing despite my low level of stress and yet i continue to experience these newly acquired symptoms that coincidentally started about two weeks after exposure. I have also researched online about many sufferers of hsv2 noting that the only warning signs they experienced that they had contracted the virus is from the muscle twitches and constant pains in their legs on one side as well. I respect your expertise and as i am a recent college graduate i no longer have health insurance and cannot go to the doctor so i would appreciate if you could tell me why do you think some hsv2 people feel like these symptoms are very much associated with hsv2??? Furthermore, i learned that herpes is a neurological virus and lives in the nerve ganglia. Because of this, why is that herpes shouldnt be connected to these symptoms since they are active in the nervous system and affect people around this general area. I have read in other fourms that you both do not feel like this is associated and i was just curious why this cant be connected despite the fact that herpes travels through the nervous system...again, i'm confident that this is the case but i would just like to know why because these "weird" symptoms started a few weeks after exposure and even though i havent developed sores, my penis still is noticably irritated and painful...thank you again so much for your time i really appreciate it!
Thank you very much for your comment. I feel alot more reassurance from hearing what you said as an expert. I think my mistake was spending hours online researching herpes scenarios and found a post of many people complaining of neurological pain including muscle spasms and tingling in one side of their bodies as the first indicator that they contracted the virus. it all made complete sense to me and there has been many days where i wake up expecting to find a bunch of blisters on my penis! Im sure this is just likely a coincidence and i really appreciate your thoughts!
if anyone else had similar symptoms and too found out it was just anxiety that would furthermore help ease my mind! thank you
Sorry, i forgot to mention that i contacted the female and she said she has never had any symptoms of herpes but she had been with 8 previous men...
Thanks!