7+ Months of Uncertainty

[mavericks23]

My doctor has insisted I do not have herpes but wanted to hear your thoughts.

In August I had an encounter with a stripper who pulled my pants down and sat on my lap, skin to skin contact lasted less than 5 seconds but 6 days later I had a red rash on scrotum, doctor said it was jock itch. There was a lot of flaky skin and it seemed like it was all at the hair follicles on scrotum. During this time I had a feeling where I was not finishing urination. The rash came back a few weeks later accompanied by what I think was neck lymph node pain and general fatigue. There were not open sores/liquid so again doctor insisted it was jock itch coming back. I wish they swabbed but they were certain and when I brought up HSV they said I was having anxiety. During the second outbreak where I did experience the flu like symptoms I also had leg pain all the way down to my left toe develop, this has continued until now for 6 months, my thought is it could be PHN but I am not sure and the doctor is not either. That is the worst part for me. The rash has come back about 3 times but its been so small (leg pain seems worse when it comes back)

Here are my test results:
Week 1 Quest IGG: HSV1 30.6 HSV2 <.9
Week 18 Letsgetchecked IGG: HSV1 positive HSV2 negative (no #)
Week 26 Letsgetchecked IGG: HSV1 positive HSV2 negative
Week 30 Letsgetchecked IGG: HSV1 positive HSV2 negative
Week 33 letsgetchecked IGG: HSV1 positive HSV2 negative

From testing I know I have HSV1, I am almost certain that is orally from when I was much younger and experienced sores on lips. I did order Valtrex online and started taking, I did not take any for the first 10 weeks but decided to start due to unbearable leg/nerve? pain.

My questions are:
Can I trust the negative at home collection tests? I think I would be more worried about a false positive vs negative with those?

Would 60 antivirals taken over a 7 month period affected HSV2 antibodies (none in first 10 weeks)

Is it possible I have GHSV1?

[Terri Warren]

We always like to start with the concerning experience when discussing the likelihood of having genital herpes. Your contact has no real risk of acquiring herpes. 5 seconds of genital to genital contact without penetration is about as risk free as one can get. But you seem to have really taken this to heart and have worried about it for a long time, doing repeated testing.

Your symptoms sound very much like jock itch (a fungal infection). In addition, neck lymph nodes have nothing to do with genital herpes nor does generalized fatigue.

Given that you’ve been 10 weeks off Valtrex, I think that is long enough to develop some antibody response so my answer is that you should trust the negative IgG tests and move along now.

Terri

[mavericks23]

Thank you for your thoughts Terri.

I have taken this to heart and worried, my partner and I were about to try to have our first child and the timing of all this has been a nightmare and had me up at night worried about passing to partner. Because of this we have not been sexually active since July.

Overall, I agree with what you say, at this point I have had a doctor and nurse practitioner examine first 2 scrotum rashes, 5 negative blood test for HSV2, and I did not even have sex so I am trying hard to move on.

The only thing still messing with my mind is my leg and buttocks pain. I am quite healthy and never had anything like this and all this leg pain popped up when the rash came back a second time. It was unbearable at first but has slowly decreased overtime but still feel it everynight and when I lie down to sleep. The daily pain is at about a 7/10 but in the 5 or so times I have had a similar rash pop up (either on my scrotum again or my perineum) the pain goes to 10/10 and I can feel it radiating from my buttocks all the way to my toes and its like an electric current is running through my legs.

I am going to try and get a urinalysis this week to rule anything else out, also 2 full STD panel were negative at week 1 and week 28.

my last questions for you:
-If this stripper had an open lesion would that make the 5 second contact much more risky? Even if it was just the scrotum?

-Do you know how rare post herpetic neuralgia is? I really don’t want to self diagnose myself but it does feel a lot like this from reading and online people say it tends to die down 7-8 months later.

Thank you for your help and this may sound like I am trying to convince myself I have HSV2 (when all signs point to not) but I just want to rule everything out with leg pain

[Terri Warren]

-If this stripper had an open lesion would that make the 5 second contact much more risky? Even if it was just the scrotum?
Very slightly

-Do you know how rare post herpetic neuralgia is? I really don’t want to self diagnose myself but it does feel a lot like this from reading and online people say it tends to die down 7-8 months later.
I know a lot about post herpetic neuralgia yes, mostly from patients with shingles. This does not sound like that to me.

Thank you for your help and this may sound like I am trying to convince myself I have HSV2 (when all signs point to not) but I just want to rule everything out with leg pain
Understood
I do not think you have HSV 2 – at all.

Terri

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