Aa
Aa
A
A
A
Close
Avatar universal

HSV-1 genital or HSV-2???

Hello.  Sorry for the long post but I'm worried that I may have genital herpes.  Here's the story:

Had unprotected sex (brief oral but a lot of finger use and then penetrative followed by oral being performed on me) with a girl on a fri (1/25).  Sat and Sun come and go and everything is fine.  However monday night comes around and as I'm just sitting in my class I suddenly feel like I'm coming down with something, but I've never felt this way before.  From one minute to the next I broke into a cold sweat.  I immediately start panicking, fearing the worse, that I got some kind of STD from this girl (after all it had only been 3 days since the encounter so I thought it was too much of a coincidence).

So I go home and have a lot of trouble going to sleep that night, feeling sick and a weird abdominal pressure which I quickly attributed to my swollen rectum (felt like it was almost puckered shut).  Additionally, when under the covers I felt as if my feet were cold and the room temperature was not the cause of it.

The next day (1/29) I went to work but still feeling like something was off (ears hissing at times, trouble concentrating) I went to my nearest private lab and got full STD testing done.  My "hope" was that it was some form of chlamydia.  The next day still in a panic, I went to a nearby urgent care center and based on my fear of having cotracted chlamydia and since the test results were not yet available, the doctor treated me for gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis with ceftriaxone (injected), azythromycin (1gm orally on the same day), and metronidazole (2gm orally the next day) respectively.  For my "conjunctivitis" he also prescribed me tobramycin 0.3% solution to be used once every 4 hrs for a week.

So for the next few days, I was living in fear thinking the worse, and when the results came back on friday (2/1) everything was negative or non-reactive except for HSV-1.  Below my HSV results:
HSV 1 IGG TYPE SPECIFIC AB  2.73 H
HSV 2 IGG TYPE SPECIFIC AB  0.11

I had taken another test exactly a year ago (1/2012)and back then my HSV results were as follows:
HSV 1 IGG TYPE SPECIFIC AB  0.04
HSV 2 IGG TYPE SPECIFIC AB  0.08

Sadly, after receiving the results, I still feel many symptoms such as crawling all over my body but predominantly around my waistline, my ankles, face (esp my nostrils, but they're not as itchy anymore), my ear canal, arms, upper and lower back and at times my hips.  At no point has the crawling been an uncontrollable itch, but my skin just feels like theres tiny little bacteria crawling underneath it.  The sensations are not constant and they come and go, but they are definitely there.  The only thing that makes me think this might not be early signs of HSV-2 are that i haven't had any itching in my penis or testicles and the tingling/itching has been minimal in my buttocks but strong around my rectum.  I also started having muscle spasms in my legs, mainly when sitting or lying in bed but definitely bothersome and it felt like electrical currents travelling through all the places I touched while having sex fluids on my hand.  I also noticed that my face and scalp are secreting more oil than normal.  A fee days later I also felt like my neck was stiffer than normal but this went away after a day and a half more or less.

It isn't until yesterday (2/7) that I felt more tingling than normal on my face and fingers, and noticed two tiny (pin-head sized) blisters show up on two fingers on one of my hands, both look about the same without any redness and both are in the hairy areas of my finger (near the second knucle on one finger amd mear the third knuckle on the other finger.  I touched and poked both of them to see if they'd burst, but they don't seem like the kind of blisters that would burst on their own, at least as they currently show. Then, later last night I felt a tingle on my glans and as soon as I looked at it I noticed a small redish dot (1/4 the size of a dime) with a tiny blister identical to the ones on my hand, so I quickly took antibacterial soap and water and softly washed over my entire glans.  A few minutes later I went back to look and there wa no longer a red dot or a blister and I saw absolutely no signs of a rash or anything else of the sort that is suppose to develop after a herpes blister pops.

So my question basically is:  did I contract HSV-1 genitally an orally and am feeling prodrome symptoms because of that, or is it just the very early stages of HSV-2 an only a matter of time before real HSV-2 sores start showing up all over my penis and the rest of my body???

Any insight is appreciated.  I'm also considering other possible conditions besides herpes, (lyme disease, ulcerative colitis, morgellons disease) but seeing as these symptoms all started after unprotected sex my mind keeps telling me its herpes.  The girl is getting tested today btw, so I won't have her results until tues or wed.

Please help put my mind at ease!  I've already prepared myself psychologically, but I'm goong crazy not knowing for sure. :(
Best Answer
101028 tn?1419603004
almost all your symptoms sound completely unrelated to std's.  I think anxiety has a lot to do with most of what you are feeling. Also side effects from the multiple antibiotics you were given are also to blame probably for many of them. also typically conjunctivitis is viral so you very well could have contracted a common non-std related virus too as are common this time of the year.

your std testing was all done too early. You need to wait at least a week for testing to be accurate. Since the provider you saw the day after testing erred and just threw multiple antibiotics at you, no need to repeat your chlamydia, gonorrhea or trich testing since all would be inaccurate. You will need to repeat your  syphilis testing after  6 weeks and herpes, hiv and hepatitis testing after 3 months since you had unprotected sex.

as to your current symptoms, you will need to be seen today or tomorrow and have them looked at. we'd totally be guessing as to what is going on. Your genital symptoms do not sound herpes related but you'll need your hand symptoms looked at. if they suspect herpes whitlow on your hands, they will need to culture them to confirm and find out which type.  

grace
6 Responses
Sort by: Helpful Oldest Newest
Avatar universal
Also, since you tested a bit too soon, it's now more clear that you've had HSV-1 before this encounter. Having a prior HSV-1 infection on any part of the body makes you immune or at the very least extremely resistant to acquiring HSV-1 genitally or on another part of the body. You have nothing to worry about here regarding genital HSV-1.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Most adults carry HSV-1. It's possible that your blood test taken a year ago was a false negative since HSV-1 tests miss 1 out of every 10. If you did acquire this in the far past, you most likely got this a child from an innocent kiss from a relative.

If you got HSV-1 recently and the test a year ago was accurate then you could have acquired it from any girl you've kissed within the past year. Unless you develop genital lesions then you can assume that the HSV-1 infection is oral, not genital.

The smegma on your glands is caused by dried lubrication probably and the crust on your eye sounds more like rheum, which is extremely common, and is completely normal.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Oh and I also forgot to mention, the day after I went to sleep feeling symptoms for the first time, I woke up the next day with a layer of smegma on my glans (I'm not circumsized), which is also the same morning I woke up with a thick crust in the eye I know I kinda touched while having sex.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Thank you for the prompt response grace, I really appreciate it.

It makes me feel a little better knowing that some of the symptoms I'm feeling are related to the unnecessary medication I took.

What scares me however, is the fact that when I drank alcohol a few days ago, it felt like an onset of the numb/tingling toes came on and I noticed small red patches of skin on two of my fingers.  It felt like those areas where stung by an insect or something and I instantly noticed a different sheen in those areas, like my fingers were sweating but it was a weird shiny sweat that glistened in small dots...

Lastly, do you think that all this could be because I just recently acquired HSV-1?  As I stated last year I didn't have it and now my test came back at 2.73 for HSV-1...  I haven't gotten any cold sores on my face before, just regular acne...

Please help... I'm still in a panic until I get the girl's results on tuesday or wednesday... :(
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Oh also, the girl I had sex with said she hasn't ever experienced any symptoms of herpes, but at this point I'm hesitant to believe her until I see her results.
Helpful - 0
Have an Answer?

You are reading content posted in the Herpes Community

Didn't find the answer you were looking for?
Ask a question
Popular Resources
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Millions of people are diagnosed with STDs in the U.S. each year.
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.