In retrospect, I realize that this was a real exposure. I learned she was still married and had at least one affair after me. I am worried because I recently had some brief intense stinging pains in the top of my penis followed by some tailbone pain and foot tingling. I then noticed a red spot about 5mm to the left of my urethra about the same size as the meatus. It was flat just like normal skin, did not hurt, faded to a light purple color within a day and was basically gone within 2-3 days.

Now I'm remembering back to this unprotected sex over 3 years ago. I forgot to mention that at some point during or just after those two days I had 10-12 red bumps on the base of my penis noticed I believe the next day but I could be wrong. They were small and discrete. I thought they were folliculitis because each seemed to have a hair in the middle. They stopped midway up the shaft where the hair stopped. When I pulled the hair, you could see it was at the center of each bump. I remember putting antiseptic on them and they went away within a day or two. No ulcers or pain.

3 weeks later I became very sick, which I posted about. High fever, severe muscle aches, hurt to breathe. Now I wonder was this primary HSV2? I have HSV1, and the mouth lesions I was worried about swabbed positive for HSV1. I tested negative for HIV.

Can you get folliculitis like this from sex? Or was this something else? I had a GF for nearly 2 years after this and neither of us had any symptoms despite regular unprotected sex, but we never tested. Did I have mild primary HSV2?

The internet is not helpful on this. It says primary HSV2 is usually asymptomatic or mild in people with HSV1. So I had atypical bumps that showed up early and went away quick (I don't remember if I took Valtrex, I might have), then I get a severe flu-like illness 3 weeks later and tested negative for flu a week later and Covid antibodies 3 months later were negative. So what was it? I'm now assuming the worst. I retested HIV and again was negative. I have been abstinent for about 18 months.

I am unclear why I was unconcerned at the time with my symptoms. Basically every time I find someone posting about new red bumps after sex that look like folliculitis it ends up being herpes, so that's what I'm expecting. I was just hoping for an expert opinion about how likely/unlikely this was from my history and your experience.

While we wait for the results, could you answer a few academic questions that I have not really been able to find a good answer to?

2. Can you have a shedding event with minor skin symptoms? As I said before, I had no symptoms for over 3 years until I had brief sharp pain in my glans, some vague sacral pains, then a painless flat red spot that showed up a day later and faded away in a few days. I am well aware of what HSV outbreaks normally feel like and do from my mouth, and that was not this. Could this have just been a shedding event that also happened to have some minor skin color changes with it? I have read about aborted outbreaks, but only in the context of taking Valtrex to abort them. I did not take Valtrex. And my oral outbreaks never start with a flat red spot, but always with some painful swelling that always progresses unless I take Valtrex, and that only works sometimes.

The fact that you've had negative swabs of genital lesions as well as a negative IgG says to me that you are most likely NOT Infected with HSV 2.  The IgG test is pretty good at picking up HSV 2 - it picks up 92% compared to the gold standard western blot antibody test for HSV

You worrying three years tells me that this is on your mind often.  I think you should consider obtaining the herpes western blot for a final resolution of this worry.  You can work with your own provider to get this test but first you need to order the kit from the University of Washington, 206-685-6066.  

You have way exceeded the allowed number of posts so I am going to close this now.  If you chose to buy a new post, that's your call but I'm not sure I have much more to offer you here.  Please consider additional testing with the blot to clear up this worry

Terri 

Would you mind commenting on the likelihood of having an electric shock like sensation in the glans then having a red skin discoloration there for a few days? If you can have prodrome with no lesion but shedding would it also make sense you could have something in between that and blisters? A shock, tailbone pain then a red spot for a few days with shedding that doesn’t actually become raised or a blister? Or does this not happen? This is really what scared me. Anecdotally on Reddit people say this happens to them.

To be clear, my previous tests were 4 years ago, about one year BEFORE these exposures. I just got the IGG test yesterday. If it’s negative, can I trust it? Or do I still need the western blot? I was a little confused about your recommendation. I will post the results with no other questions till then if you want to leave it open.

Thank you.

Yes, you can have prodrome without lesions at all and you can have herpes without any symptoms at all -that is all possible.  But we also look back at the sexual experiences when trying to decide if something is a risk as well as looking at any outbreaks in the past several years.

I didn't realize that the IgG test was done before the exposures but if it is negative now, I think  yes, with 92% certainty, you can rely upon the HSV 2 result.  There are false positives with the IgG testing so be aware of that and reach back out if you get a low positive or you can reach me at westoverheights.com to arrange a western blot.  I'm going to close this thread now - we've gone way beyond what we should have done already.

Terri