[Question #5072] Positive for HSV1- Oral or Genital?
77 months ago
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Hello Doctors,
I'm a 3o year old heterosexual male. About a month ago, I noticed a small fleshy bump on my scrotum. I've never had anything like this appear before so I began to monitor it closely and do some research. At first, I thought it most closely resembled a wart. However, after a few days passed, I could see what appeared to be a white head forming. I did have sex (not oral) a couple days before I noticed the bump, so the timing was a little curious. I understand that it's difficult to visually diagnose these things but I thought it looked like some photos I've seen of a herpe and I ordered a blood test via an STD check site. I had a blood draw approx 5 days after I noticed the bump and the IgG test came back positive (equivocal) 0.98 for HSV1 and negative for HSV2. At this point I was fairly certain that I had picked up HSV1 genitally. BUT Roughly another 5 days after the test there was a pronounced white head. I gave it a little squeeze and a soft white substance sort of rolled right out leaving a clean crater that soon disappeared. I never had any symptoms that are listed for Genital herpes; the bump never caused me any discomfort at all. It's possible that I simply picked up oral HSV1 at some point and this is all a big coincidence... but I really don't know how to be sure. I want to be responsible about it and my sex life is certainly on hold until I can confidently sort this out. I don't have any genital lesions right now but there is some activity on the bridge of my nose that actually seems more consistent with a herpe legion. It started last week and it's clearing some now but it more resembles a break in the skin than a pimple.
Questions:
1. what can be done to verify if I have oral or genital (or both) HSV1?
2. Is it likely to have both or would the presence of oral herpes be enough to rule out genital?
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Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner
77 months ago
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77 months ago
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Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner
77 months ago
|