lost and confused. please help.

[hello and welcome]

not a fairly sexually active guy. received oral sex from a woman on jan 3. around jan 10th slight rash and small pimples, about five appear on head and foreskin of penis. these symptoms only (ie. no rash, burning, puss, white-heads, etc). from the 10th until the 17th the symptoms decrease, but on the 18th they return to about 70% of the initial state. skin becomes irritated by slightly above-normal washing for obvious reasons.

on i believe the 18th i go to the doctor, which tells me he believes its not an std and puts me on antibiotics, both pills and a topical cream (for one week). says that her teeth could have scraped the end of my penis, and i didn't wash after, or that night for that matter. stupid and young i guess.

rash and pimples decreased in 24-48 hours, but come back when i masturbated, or bathed, basically when i irritate the skin. i'm on day 14 in about 90 min here (the 23rd of jan) and i've been doing nothing but reading google for the last two weeks straight.

i know that herpes is often misdiagnosed when its actually present, and i know that a lot of people sweat bullets for nothing on the hand. i have had no previous "outbreaks" or rashes of this nature. i have never had a cold sore.

i just can't stop stressing. going through the why me stage. like she wanted to bang, but i told her no because it was too early and then i broke up cause i thought she just wanted a bang buddy.

so thats my rant, here are my questions:

1. if i have a mild rash, wouldn't it disappear quickly. rather i'm heading over the common "3-14" day period for symptoms. am i in denial?

2. a blood test. this will put my mind at ease. how long do i have to wait? if it comes back positive, how do i distinguish between oral herpes and genital herpes. i'm really confused about this part. like say somebody had cold sores on their lip as a child, and then had a bacterial infection or something like a yeast infection as an adult. couldn't a person test positive for herpes without ever having it genitally. like the statistic of 70% of people having oral herpes of some sort. would they then live forever believing that their bacterial infection was genital herpes, if say there was never a reccurent outbreak. this boggles me as to the complete and utter ridiculousness of this as a pandemic. whether i have herp or not, it seems like a minor infection that has been blown into a stigmatic pandemic.

3. anything, anything at all that you think will ease my mind right now. and yes i really do want to go to the doctor. gonna go back in a couple days.

[bluefrog]

you went to the doctor with visible "sores" and he did not do a culture? When I went to the doctor, I had no visible signs of having herpes and based on my lifestyle and explanation of said sores, my gynocologist felt that I did not have herpes. We discussed blood work, which I opted for, because I had never experienced what I had prior to my visit to him. I had to postpone my first appointment due to getting my period. Anyway, bloodwork came back positive for both hsv 1 and 2. I believe they are both genital, as I have never had a cold sore or fever blister and have not had since contracting herpes in April of 07 (diagnosis in May 07). Hope this little bit of information helps.

[hello and welcome]

Originally Posted by bluefrog

you went to the doctor with visible "sores" and he did not do a culture? When I went to the doctor, I had no visible signs of having herpes and based on my lifestyle and explanation of said sores, my gynocologist felt that I did not have herpes. We discussed blood work, which I opted for, because I had never experienced what I had prior to my visit to him. I had to postpone my first appointment due to getting my period. Anyway, bloodwork came back positive for both hsv 1 and 2. I believe they are both genital, as I have never had a cold sore or fever blister and have not had since contracting herpes in April of 07 (diagnosis in May 07). Hope this little bit of information helps.

first, thank you for your post.

so, could an 11-year old that had a cold sore in 1st grade be tested positive for herpes by bloodwork? how do you prevent the spread of a disease that 70% of the population has had in their mouth? i know i'm missing something here.

[Caliope]

You really have some good questions. I am going to attach a link that you might find helpful and I'll answer some of the questions.

There are two strands of herpes simplex virus. They are called hsv1 and hsv2. They can be transmitted by healthy skin coming into contact with infected skin. Either strand can infect any part of the body but most often it is the mouth or the genitals. A cold sore is often caused by hsv1 and can be transmitted to the genitals through oral sex. It is not possible for you to kiss someone and then to suddenly have genital herpes you have to have actual skin to skin contact.

A yeast infection is caused by candida albicans which is a fungus and a bacterial infection is caused by bacteria. Neither of these are the same as herpes but can cause symptoms in mucosal membranes.

It is very common to have a coldsore as a child from a harmless kiss from grandma and to test positive for herpes as an adult even though you never remember having a coldsore. It is also possible to spread it to someone without having evidence of an ob. About 70% of the population is infected with oral coldsores. The best way to avoid contracting them is to avoid contact when one is present and to ask your partners if they have them or have been tested for them.

You can get a herpes specific bloodtest to check for the presence of antibodies for hsv1 and hsv2 at about 8 weeks after initial exposure. Seroconversion usually occurs 2-16 weeks after exposure for most people.

http://www.herpes-coldsores.com/herp...ex_1_and_2.htm

[hello and welcome]

okay i skimmed over the article and will read it later when i have more time. question, though. lets say this is just a bacterial infection. and then i am tested for hsv-1 later through a blood test. but lets say i already fall under the majority bracket of people that have hsv-1 antibodies. will i live the rest of my life having to think/tell people that i have genital herpes? do you know what i mean? mild/asymptomatic condition+completely understandable antibodies=life long depression? this condition is just confusing...

p.s. the rash is almost gone on the antibiotics now AND thanks for the help

[Caliope]

I'd take the attitude that 70-80% of the population has coldsores. I'd get myself educated and make sure I am proactive with my partners.

It isn't always about you protecting others from yourself it is about you protecting yourself from others as well. The beauty about adult sexuality and disclosure is that it is for both people's benefit.

Bacterial infections happen and so do many other sti's. Not everyone has the same standards about health and hygiene. You gotta look out for yourself.

[hello and welcome]

i know what you mean. but does that mean that 7/10 people should be telling their partner they have herpes but that they aren't sure if its genital or not?

take my friend as an example. he had unprotected sex about a year or two ago and went to the doctor freaked out because he had mild symptoms. the doctor told him he had a yeast infection and walla- after meds it cleared up. and it reoccurs now, so he pulls his foreskin back to let it dry out and takes antibiotics. but i mean he's had i don't know prolly around 5 or 6 partners. statistically speaking he has an over 100% chance of having hsv-1 and a near 100% chance of having hsv-2. so lets say he goes to the doctor now and asks for the herpes test that they never seem to administer. and it comes back for hsv-1 (or 2?) and he never has a yeast infection again. what does he tell his partner? couldn't hsv-1/2 just have been a cold sore as a child. could he be paranoid that he was misdiagnosed and tell the world he's got the genital herp?

i'm just confused about the morality/pragmatics of this issue...

[VVK]

Well, if you get tested positive via blood tests, all you will know is whether or not you have herpes and, if you do, you will know which type. You won't necessarily know where it resides in your body - genital, oral, or both.

If you get cold sores, you'll know you have it orally, but can't count out genitally - could just be dormant, leaving you asymptomatic down there. If you displayed sores down there, those could get swab-tested to confirm genital herpes.

If you're asymptomatic, there's no easy way to tell.

One way is the partner test. You get a long-term H- partner (important to watch like a hawk for 6 months to ensure faithfulness, then confirm via negative blood tests) and see if you can infect him/her down there (that is, without oral sex - that would be cheating if you have oral herpes). I'm completely against this method, but a lot of people do this without even knowing it.

The other way is a tedious and probably very expensive trial of swab tests over a year to see if you ever shed asymptomatically. Some lab studies did this, but I doubt you could get this without having some good connections.

Sorry, herpes is a tricky little virus.

[hello and welcome]

i hear you. what do i do at this point. the doctor put me on a week's worth of antibiotics. should i see what happens by this friday? if it goes away, it was bacterial. if not, go back to the uroligist? go for blood work? is the reason why herpes is not included in regular std tests because its so asymptomatic, and so easy to misdiagnose, and the psychological trauma of knowing one has it is devestating.

like either my doctor was a professional doctor or psychologist, but he took one look and said bacterial infection. but then i go online, and get the earfull of sites where its like "no symptoms" "anything out of the ordinary could be herpes!" like the list was something like pain, itchiness, spots of any kind, flu, etc. basically being alive or having genitals.

but the fact remains that if i didn't receive oral a month back i wouldn't be stressing. now i have to live with the idea that i could have herpes, but i'll never know for sure if i'm infectious/genital/oral? the sores weren't even sores. the rash was regular in that i've seen it before after rough sex. just red skin. the thing is is that occurs almost immediately and fades away. this one, although not as obvious showed up after a week and perpetuated until i went on antibiotics. the pimples? no one was larger than 1 mm, or half that. not really clustered. perhaps two or three were close. since on meds, rash is gone, three spots remains, and they aren't really sticking out anymore. just spots.

so my question to you is this: if its basically gone by friday, i go to the urologist and he gives me the thumbs up, does this still call for a herpes test? i just don't wanna go and get the same result that 70% of people would get for something that is completely irrelevant, and base my short to midterm over stressing over it.

where does morality/sanity come into this? any advice? geeze herpes is an interesting topic.

[hello and welcome]

hi. i went to the doctor after taking antibiotics. wasn't cleared up, but mostly gone. he swabbed my member and showed me candida under the microscope.

few questions:

1. penis looked like this at its worst http://www.penis-website.com/images/balanitis.jpg. your take? sorry if not linked.

2. is finding candida possible even if its not actually a yeast infection? like could any guy go get swabbed and find candida/yeast under a microscope on his member?

3. remaining dots cleared up on anti-fungal, but my symptoms fit the bill perfectly. i didn't want to mention it up until this point because i didn't think it mattered, but i didn't actually get oral. i was drugged and i think raped. i'm going through extreme psychological distress right now and i don't know what to do. because i don't know if i had oral or genital, male or female intercourse. my symptoms included not a flu, but a minor cold (5-10 days), 7 days from exposure redness and pimples, gone in 2-3 weeks. your take?

i'm gonna go get tested still, but its killing me now. what if it comes back hsv1 and its oral. but now with the completed yeast infection, i can't get it out of my head that its genital herp. second, if it comes back hsv2 positive, what if that too was oral, and i can't get it out of my head that the yeast was herp. my mom has cold sores, so i'm not sure if that would make me more succeptable cause of close proximity over the years, kiss before bed, shared drinks etc.

what to do? your take?

anything? please help.