Is herpes causing all my symptoms?

[makeitstopplease]

I am a 28 year old female. For as long as I can remember I have been having genital symptoms that come and go. Itching, followed by scratching, causing the area to become red, swollen, painful and tender for at least a day. This has since spread to the anal area too. I have been to numerous GPs, gynaecologists etc to no avail. Used many anti-yeast pills and creams too over the years which helped nothing. There is discharge during these episodes but no odor. After having sex for the first time at 18, I realized something was quite wrong. It hurt like hell, a tearing, burning pain. Inside and outside. Saw a sex therapist who said I had hypersensitive nerves on the outside and that was causing the pain. Also suggested I have botox(nope) and to use a specially made cream for the rest of my life. Cream didn’t really help, had Physio for an overactive pelvic floor and used dilators. I got married 2 years ago and the amount of times we’ve had sex, I can count on my one hand. Outside is fine, inside still hurts like hell, with lube and different positions etc. I was diagnosed with endometriosis 4 years ago and it was stage 2 and removed laparoscopically. Currently I am taking Cetaway or Texa at night which seem to help manage the outbreaks of itchiness etc. or it could be the placebo effect. I don’t know, nothing has ever worked so I’m not very optimistic. A few months ago I had a rash in the genital area on both sides as well as the anal area. GP said it was candida and treated me for such. I am also struggling with a chronic fissure which I can’t get rid of. Anyway, gp went online and looked at previous blood tests and lo and behold, a STD panel done 10 years ago showed I was positive for herpes virus 2. And no one informed me. Doc got all excited and said that’s what’s causing all my symptoms and I will feel better now and everyone missed the diagnosis and whatever. He prescribed 250mg Valtrex for 5 days, twice daily, and then to use when I have an outbreak. I am also on Visanne for the endometriosis. I have been having a sore body for many years and tested for fibromyalgia etc and was wondering if that was the damned herpes too. So I’ve been taking the Valtrex for 7 days now with no improvement, still having small bumps in the anal area and that damned fissure. Is my dosage too low or will it take longer to work since I “waited” 10 years? I also saw Scheriproct which I use for the fissure is contraindicated in herpes so I don’t know what to do now. Could herpes cause painful sex? Will I ever be normal and actually be able to have a child?

[auntiejessi]

If this IS herpes (and I doubt it is causing all your problems if you do have it), your Valtrex dose is way too low.
The dose for an outbreak is Valacyclovir 500 mg orally twice a day for 3 days OR Valacyclovir 1 g orally once a day for 5 days.

For suppression, it's either 5oo mg or 1 gm orally once a day. Outside of studies, 250 mg is never used.

I'd also like to see the testing you had done, and what it said. Make sure it's an IgG test, and that it has a separate result for type 1 and type 2. I'd like to know what the number for it is, too - it will be like 4.5 or 8.7 or 14.6 or something.

When you have sex, is it painful inside or outside? If it's painful outside, look up vulvodynia.

Cetaway and Texa are antihistamines. Are they giving that to you thinking you have an allergy to something, or to help you sleep? It IS possible that an allergy is contributing to this. Make sure you are using scent and dye free everything - laundry detergent, toilet paper, body washes, wipes, dryer sheets - anything that you can think of that comes into contact with your genital area, make it scent and dye free. Wear 100% cotton underwear. Wear all white ones. Don't douche. Don't use harsh soaps - the vagina is like a self-cleaning oven anyway, and doesn't really need to be washed. You can use a washcloth externally, but you don't need to do anything internally, or need soaps/washes externally. If you must use soap, use something very gentle, like Ivory or something for sensitive skin, with no scents or dyes.

If you were tested properly, and do have herpes, you may want to talk to your doctor about suppressive therapy. This is Valtrex taken every day to help prevent outbreaks. With everything else going on, the last thing you need is an outbreak.

[makeitstopplease]

All it says is herpes 1 iGg - negative. Herpes 2 iGg - positive. I was more worried at the point about chlymidia as my ex said he had that. The pharmacies don’t even have that dose - I have to halve a tablet every time. With sex the pain is on the inside. It is tender on the outside too where the gynaecologist did a Fenton, thinking I was too small. That helped nothing and I removed the stitches myself after a few days. I don’t know about the allergy. I have started wearing 100% cotton and I don’t douche or use soap or even bubble bath. I had a full blood count done to see whether there would be any abnormal eosinophil numbers - not realizing the Texa would anyway reduce them. My ESR is high though - indicating inflammation and infection somewhere.  In Dec my FBC showed a white cell count of 3 with a swollen neck lymph node, so there was a bit of a cancer scare there but that has since cleared up. I am a 2nd year nursing student and we have to wear this horrible synthetic uniforms which really annoys the backpassage. If I work 2 12 hour shifts in a row then I’m very likely to have a problem there. I can just just get away with 2 9 hour shifts 2 days apart. I started taking the Texa myself to see whether it would help my scratchy throat and I noticed an improvement in my “outbreaks”. I’ve used corticosteroid creams, antibiotic creams, basically anything. Doctors always try to tell me that it’s psychological that sex hurts. I must relax and what what. But when I’m alone, relaxed in the bath, the dilators hurt. And they are smaller than my husband! I was hoping the herpes was the missing link in this stupid puzzle  

[auntiejessi]

Oh my sweet lord. You've been through it.

There's a reason pharmacies don't have a 250 mg tablet - it's never a dosage. :(

I don't know where you are, but is it possible to get a new doctor? Yours knows nothing, or next to it.

I'd like to see you get a type specific IgG test that actually gives you a number, though I know that isn't always possible.

It may help you to start taking probiotics, like acidophilus. Synthetic materials do me in, too, and lots of women, and you are stuck in them for hours and hours. I don't know why they can't give you all cotton uniforms or scrubs.

It's good to notice that the Texa helps some of your symptoms. That lends to it being an allergy, at least in part. It could even be the stupid uniform. Wearing cotton underwear may help with that.

I don't know if you are "small", or if that's your doctors' way of pushing your actual issue off. Google vulvodynia if you haven't, since at least part of the pain is outside. Is there a doctor near you that specializes in painful sex? That may be a good place to start.

[makeitstopplease]

Thank you for taking the time to reply.  

I live in South Africa but not in like Johannesburg or Cape Town. The sexologist I saw is internationally acclaimed and she stays in Joburg - which is 4 hours away from me. She also charges a hell of a lot. My current GP is really one of the better ones I’m afraid. Like I said I’ve been all over town. If another doctor tells me it’s just thrush I will kill them.

The probiotics might help with my stomach problems as I do think I’m gluten intolerant. Probiotics are just so expensive though. My medical aid hardly covers any medication at all.

I really don’t understand the uniform thing. The health sciences, of all departments, should understand synthetics cause issues.

Apparently there is nothing wrong with my anatomy and the gynae did the fenton thing which enlarged the opening and only just left scar tissue and didn’t solve anything. No one here specializes in painful sex. After 10 years i am so over it. My husband and I have been together for 7 years now and we had sex for the first time almost a year into marriage. Obviously I have guilt feelings about that and I’m sure I clench because I know pain is coming. The sexologist and my current gynae prescribed very strong muscle relaxants. I tried it and waited a while and we tried the sex thing and it was more painful than ever. Next day the pills kicked in only.

I am staring to wonder whether the test was a false positive. The guy who presumably gave it to me, and I didn’t even sleep together and we didn’t do much else very often. He has no symptoms till today and my other ex which I did sleep with (like 5-6 times) also has no symptoms and his doctor told him he didn’t have to test. My husband has no symptoms either. Very weird. Oh and I’ve googled all the various types of vag problems to no avail.

[auntiejessi]

My suggestion for you would be find a really good Facebook group for vulvodynia (and it pains me to say that lol). My experience with chronic issues is that people who have it know way more than doctors. If they don't think you have vulvodynia, they may be able to help you with what it is.

Without knowing what your numeric result would be, I can't say if you had a false positive, but I know that officially, anything above a 1.10 is considered positive, and most experts think anything under 3.5 should be confirmed because 1.10 is way too low. That means there'd be a good chance yours was a false positive.

Gluten intolerance causes a LOT of issues. Try going gluten free and see if that helps. If you do try probiotics, make sure those are gluten free, too. (And yes, they can be very expensive, unfortunately.)

I really wish I could help you more. :(

[makeitstopplease]

Thank you Jessie. Appreciate your feedback

[Life360_Dave]

Hi firstly tell us what test you had confirming positive for hsv2 as your symptoms dont appear as herpes.

[makeitstopplease]

I know right. The IgG test.