Hello,
So I have some concerns, and strictly need to ease my anxiety. About a year (April 2011) ago I noticed some stinging at the tip of my urethra after urinating. Over time I also developed what appeared to be frequent urination, dribbling after going, and the feeling that I still have to pee after emptying my bladder. This occurred sporadically, coming and going, and I simply ignored it.
Back up to December 2010. I had unprotected sex with a girl I was dating, and for the next fourteen months I lived in a state of fear and panic that I had herpes. This was based on nothing more than my own anxiety, as I never exhibited symptoms. In fact, the girl claimed she got tested AFTER we had sex, and revealed she was 100% negative.
Fast forward to February. I'm dating a new girl, and things are going well. The slight stinging came back, so I went to the doctor and she gave me a full work-up, including an IgG test for HSV1 and 2. The results were incredibly negative - 0.04 and 0.05, so I know without a doubt that the girl I had unprotected sex with did not give me herpes. You'd think my paranoia would end, but alas, it did not.
Now within the past week it's been stinging pretty bad after urinating. I finally went to a walk-in clinic, and the doctor there peered inside my urethra with a light, and said he noticed some redness and, I quote, "it looks like a lesion." I panicked. He then went on to say that "lesion" was a catch all term for any sort of redness on thin mucus membrane, and I asked that we look again.
So we looked again, and upon closer examination, he basically said "That doesn't really look like anything. It's just some redness. If it was herpes, it would hurt all the time, and be bigger and probably coming out of the tip of the urethra. Don't worry about it."
When it comes to what a herpes sore looks like, I suppose he's right, but I'm still scared. He prescribed Cipro for the other symptoms, but stated that prostatitis wouldn't cause redness in the urethra like that. A Urologist I spoke to online said that it can, so I'm kind of freaked out about the differing diagnoses. Both, however, suggested Cipro.
Does this sound like herpes? I've had sex all of six or seven times since the unprotected incident, all protected, with my now ex, who is 100% adamant she's clean. She's never had a single symptom. I imagine if it were herpes that I caught from her, and this was my first outbreak, I'd be having other symptoms, such as the flu-like symptoms, and the "redness," or whatever it is, would be far more painful. But there's also the case that I A) tested negative, and B) have had this stinging pain for over year off and on, and C) have other symptoms that line up with prostatitis.
Am I worried over nothing? All urine tests also came back clean as well - no bacteria or anything was detected.