Nagging doubts

[Eafoss]

Hello,

Last spring (May-ish 2014), I had several repeat sexual encounters with someone who later found out they were positive for both hsv 1 and 2. In these encounters, I only received oral sex, neither reciprocating nor engaging in other types of sex. I got tested in October of that year (so around 3-4 months out) with the type specific Igg tests, both of which came back negative. I didn’t worry about it again until just recently, when a small red, slightly vesicular bump popped up on the shaft of my penis. It was painless and did not itch. I went to my doctor and got Igg tests again, both of which just came back negative. This being March of 2015, we are almost a year removed from my exposure.

What complicates matters is I was recently diagnosed with a mild case of shingles. To treat it, I was given a prescription of 1 gram of valtrex three times a day for 7 days. I finished that treatment the morning of the 27th of February. My bump appeared 2 days later, on March 1st. I was tested for herpes for the second time on March 5th, 7 days after finishing my treatment of Valtrex. My question is would the treatment of Valtrex, being a high dose, potentially affect the results of a Type Specific Igg test this far removed from exposure and 5 days removed from testing? And how common is it to experience a genital herpes outbreak (however mild) so soon after finishing a round of high dose Valtrex?

Thank you very much.

[Terri Warren]

The Valtrex that you took would not influence the antibody test results at all, a year later. Certainly no worries there.
When you say that the bump was vesicular, that means it was a water blister. Was it a water blister? How long did it stay? Did it change from a blister to anything else?

Terri

[Eafoss]

That’s how my primary physician described it. “slightly vesicular” It looked like a mix between a pimple and a small blister to me. It was light red and then I tried to pop it and it became darker. I checked it a couple of hours after I had tried to pop it and the head was gone, leaving behind a flat almost ulcer looking spot, but by the next day the head had replaced itself. It’s still there now, 8 days later, but since around Wednesday it’s become flesh colored and just seems like a bump, not really vesicular. It does not appear to have reduced in size at all. My primary physician thought it was either herpes or a type of genital wart. Have you ever heard of a vesicular red bump turning out to be the beginning of a genital wart? Going from red to flesh colored?

Do you have an opinion on how common it is to have a herpes outbreak 2 days after a Valtrex treatment?

[Terri Warren]

Where was your shingles outbreak?

Terri

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