[Question #8804] Non-specific symptoms, herpes?
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39 months ago
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Hi!
Sexual history (male with male partners):
- Reciprocated oral sex Jan 2022 and later found out partner was diagnosed with genital herpes 6 months prior (not sure which type. He had no genital lesions at the time
- Unprotected insertive anal sex with partners who said they didn't have herpes (but have never had a lab test as these aren't routinely done in Canada)
- My most recent sexual encounter was March 18/2022, reciprocated oral sex
- A week later, felt some localized soreness near the head of penis (size of a quarter) which went away after 2 days with no skin changes. Then over the following 3 weeks or so, I noticed small red spots appear on my penis, ranging from 1 to 3 or 4 clustered together. Spots were small (1-2mm x 1-2mm), painless, flush with the skin, red, non-raised. They would appear in the morning and would fade 1 to 2 days later (sometimes by the end of the day). I went to get STD tested (gono, chlamydia, hiv, syphillis) and this all came back negative. The MD who did my consult looked at photos of the spots and said it didn't look like anything herpes related... and then this past Saturday (Apr 30) was out drinking and Monday I noticed a spot appear again (and it was gone by the next day). I have anxiety that this is a very mild form of herpes and not sure how to proceed.
- Do you recommend herpes testing at this point?
- What would you suspect I'm experiencing, if not herpes?
- How should i ease my anxiety?
Thank you so much in advance!
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39 months ago
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Hi i was just following up on my recent question. Also, not sure if it matters but all my partners have been single encounters and mainly oral/kissing with only anal insertive sex which was a year ago. Looking forward to your reply and thank you in advance!
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Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner
39 months ago
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Sorry to have missed this, we are in Mexico without great reception.
The symptoms that you describe of the small red dots doesn't sound like herpes to me - they weren't tender, they weren't blistered and they went away in a very short period of time.
You could test, but there are some false positives on the IgG test for HSV 2 so if you did it, if the number you get back if positive is less than 5, you would need a confirmatory test.
What are you thoughts about what you are going to do at this point?
Terri
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39 months ago
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No worries and glad to have your input.
And yes, you've described the spots correctly -- they sometimes will fade by the end of the day even. Have you seen "mild" herpes present like this and for such a long duration (from the first spot to the most recent spot, it was around 5 to 6 weeks)? Does herpes (assuming that this is) come in waves like this, as the spots came/went at least 5 or 6 times? By confirmatory test, do you mean another IgG beyond 12 weeks or a WB (as it'll be challenging to access the WB in Canada)? Also, when I read statistics about people being "asymptomatic" for herpes does that mean no symptoms at all or just symptoms that aren't classic of HSV?
Thank you in advance for your time and help.
(also, will this count as my first or second follow-up?)
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Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner
39 months ago
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I have never seen a herpes lesion fade like that - ever.
Herpes could recur that often, but would last about one week - blister, ulcerate, scab, heal.
It is absolutely possible to get the blot in Canada and I can tell you how.
Asymptomatic is subjective. In fact, most people who are infected with HSV 2 do have symptoms but often miss them or confuse them with something else.
This counts as your second follow up, you have one more to go ;-)
Terri
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39 months ago
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So I got some more information from my encounter a week prior before experiencing these symptoms. My partner mentioned that he had a mild sore throat during our encounter which he chalked up to from drinking alcohol the day before... (which was subsequently swabbed for gon/chlamydia and was inconclusive); he also tested positive for anal chlamydia. Our encounter was strictly kissing and oral on penis (nothing near the anal area so I wasn't worried about the chlamydia). With regards to his mild sore throat, is this a symptom of herpes? Could my symptoms have been from some other random bacteria/virus that isn't commonly tested for? Do you see any link between the two? He said he's never had any cold sores before and didn't have any other symptoms at the time other than this sore throat. His HSV status is unknown as it isn't routinely tested for in Canada without "classic" symptoms.
Thank you again for your help in advance.
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Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner
39 months ago
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It is so difficult to know what the sore throat might have been about, but given that half the population in the US between 14 and 49 have HSV 1 infection and the majority is oral, it is certainly possible that this partner had HSV 1 oral infection even without a history of cold sores. However, the primary symptom of that would not be a sore throat. No. I don't think the fact that he had a sore throat changes my opinion that your symptoms don't sound typically herpetic. If you are still worried about HSV, consider the blot. But remember, if you do the blot and it is positive for HSV 1, we cannot tell you the location of the infection, only that you have it or don't have it
Terri
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