The Old Toilet Question

[john3030]

I am currently awaiting my test results to find out if I have Genital Herpes, and everything that I read and physically see is leading me to believe that this is most definitely Genital Herpes and my first outbreak.  I have been with my wife for almost 4 years and neither of us have had extramarital relations.  I'm only the second person that my wife had ever been with and she has never shown any symptoms.  In my case, I have been with 4 people in my lifetime without a condom, all of which were not the most promiscuous women (women that I knew and dated and had never had any outbreaks of herpes).  Like I said, those relationships were all over 4 years ago.  I definitely know that the virus can remain dormant for an extended period of time before it surfaces, but I can't help but doubt that this is the case.  I was not under any particular amount of stress at the time of my outbreak, and over the past couple of years I have gone through an intense surgery and many other stress inducing events that may be sufficient to allow for an outbreak.  Even though I constantly hear that there is basically no chance to get the virus from a toilet, I am still convinced that this was the culprit.  I know it sounds weird, but hear me out...

At my job (I started working here 3 months ago) there is only one toilet shared amongst a large group of males, some of which frequently talk about going home with various women.  The bathroom is so crowded that you usually have to wait your turn and go in immediately after another leaves the toilet.  The toilet bowl is basically kids size, and every time that I sit down on it, the opening of the tip of my penis presses up against the front part of the bowl.  There's been many times over the past month where I didn't noticed at first, but the opening of my penis thoroughly wiped around on the inside of the bowl.  Every time that I did this, it grossed me out and I remember consciously thinking several weeks ago that I need to be more cautious because there's probably quite a bit of bacteria and germs on there.  Especially because all of the other men using the toilet are most likely touching the same exact spot with the head of their penis.  Lo and behold this week (a few weeks later) I notice a razor sharp pain in my urethra and then a couple days later the blisters and rash showed up on the underside of my penis.  Why would it not make sense that if someone with genital herpes who could have likely gotten puss all over the spot where the opening of my penis head was rubbing around can not pass me the virus.  This almost seems more likely to me than the dormant idea, especially because I've read that in most cases the first outbreak occurs a few weeks after being infected.

I'm trying to come to terms with everything that has gone on this week and feel like I need to know how I may have contracted it.  Any input is helpful.

[Life360_Dave]

Its not possible to contract herpes from a sitting toilet seat. You contracted this from prior exposures.

[john3030]

So I just received my results from a swab test at the doctor, and it was positive.

I'd like to reiterate because I was expecting a more thorough and/or scientific explanation.  I did not ever mention a "toilet seat" in my comment, and yes, one of my symptoms during my first outbreak was a highly contagious and consistent clear/cloudy discharge (my wife had small rashes on her arm from sleeping next to me and I was even careful not to touch my infected area with my hands).

So let me restate... because of the toilets size there is a spot on the toilet where the opening (aka mucous membrane) of my penis and many others touch on a daily basis.  On occasion the opening/mucous membrane of my penis thoroughly wiped around on this spot.  And on many of these occasions I sat down on the toilet no more than 20 seconds after the person before me.  Due to the fact that this contagious discharge could have been existent on the same spot that mucous membrane of my penis touched, is it possible that I contracted the Virus from here.

The fact that I was not under any particular stress and experienced a really intense first outbreak makes me think that it may not have been surpressed for over 4 years (in which I experienced much more stressful surgeries, etc...  I was never in a relationship with anyone that had knowingly had herpes or ever experienced an outbreak.  With all that said, I know that it is still very possible that I could have contracted it over 4 years ago, but I'd like to know if my other hypothesis is possible.

[Life360_Dave]

Hi, you canot contract herpes from a toilet seat and herpes is not puss filled.To confirm herpes have a blood test or a swab of a current sore.