Around the same time or a few days later, I developed jock itch in the creases of my thighs.  I am pretty confident I am not mistaking JI for anything else, as I have had it before and the clinician who did my G/C tests also confirmed by visual inspection. I did scratch it and a few small paper cuts appeared, bled a bit and healed in a day.  The JI has improved with OTC cream and is finally almost gone at 7-8 weeks.

I think due to the itching/discomfort of JI, I have been very anxious about HSV.  I have been checking myself constantly and have had no sores or lesions, nor anything that has affected my actual penis at all.  I have had irritation on my entire scrotum,but nothing local in nature.  About 3 weeks post encounter, I had a slight fever (99.9), slight chills and a few body aches that all went away in a day.  I also developed a cough that my family also had.  

Questions: (1) given that I have had no sores/lesions nor any specific HSV symptoms, am I likely “in the clear” from this poor decision?  I have read many responses, including a recent one that said it is nearly 100% not HSV if no symptoms within 30 days, but that is hard to reconcile with asymptomatic or anecdotes of people having delayed OBs.  Can I stop worrying about this? (2) Any other next steps to recommend?  

(1) given that I have had no sores/lesions nor any specific HSV symptoms, am I likely “in the clear” from this poor decision?  I have read many responses, including a recent one that said it is nearly 100% not HSV if no symptoms within 30 days, but that is hard to reconcile with asymptomatic or anecdotes of people having delayed OBs.  Can I stop worrying about this?

The experience that you describe is incredibly low risk, and the fact that you haven't had any symptoms, lesions or sores, subsequently increases my confidence that infection is very unlikely indeed.  Obviously, I can't promise that you didn't get infected but I can say that if I were in your situation, I would be worried about herpes in this situation.

There are no other steps that you need to take here, no, not in my opinion.  If you do decide to test down the road due to worries about this contact, with this very low risk experience, I think you should do the very best test, the western blot.  The IgG tests have some false positives and we would like to avoid that.

Terri Warren

Since I have questions/follow-ups available, I’d like to ask one more thing.

Would it be rare for HSV to present on the groin crease during the initial OB?  How about the scrotum? I have read that the skin is too thick there for an initial OB in both cases, but not sure if it is rare or impossible.

Thanks, again.

Terri