- This topic has 6 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 5 months, 2 weeks ago by .
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Hey Terri,
I’ve been fighting an issue on and off for about 3 months now. The issues started about 8 days after a protected sexual encounter (PIV). After getting out of the shower one morning, drying off, i brushed across what appeared to be a pretty infected hair in the suprapubic area. As most males do, i attempted to pop it, only making the issue worse. So i left it alone and actually forgot about it. Fast forward 5 days, while in the shower i experienced a stinging sensation in the area, looked down to see the skin in the area had washed away exposing 3 open lesions. The lesions were pretty much symmetrically round in shape and didn’t create any pain. Not really thinking much of it yet, i cleaned them out with Peroxide and yet about my day. The lesions scabbed over immediately and began to heal. A few day later, I noticed a tiny vesicle begin to appear in the same area. It was there a couple days, then gone. Then another would appear and same thing. This continued over the week so i went an urgent care. I showed the Dr. pics of what it looked like originally and he diagnosed it as Impetigo Folliculitis and gave me Mupirocin. This seemed to help with the healing process but the vesicles continued to appear sporadically. So i went to my GP, went through the situation again, he also thought the same diagnosis. He gave me Doxycycline to take for 5 days.
The issue seemed to go away for a couple weeks, then again the vesicles began to appear. They never get bigger than a tiny pinhead and never associated with pain or other symptoms. In fact, I would never know they were there if i didn’t check everyday. They also only show in the general area where the original infected hair was observed.
Does this sound like a possible herpes OB or could the issues still be caused by a bacterial infection? -
It is difficult to say what is happening here, but a PCR swab test should have been done in your situation to determine if this was HSV. The fact that the lesions appeared at the base of the penis, likely in an area not fully covered by a condom, is also concerning. You could ask that a herpes swab test be done of anything that is present now and you could also do an antibody test yourself as well as ask if the partner might be tested. I believe your health care has been less than optimal in this situation. Impetigo at the base of the penis as the cause of blisters? I don’t think so, but I honestly don’t know with any certainty what this might be. Herpes should be considered as one of the possible causes of your symptoms
Terri
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No, it is not common for outbreaks to last for months. If that is the case, then herpes is unlikely. A culture for bacterial infection and fungi should likely be done to try to sort this out for you.
Terri
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Since your index value falls below 3.0, the disease control center recommends obtaining a confirmatory test. I don’t understand why LabCorp did not do that unless they were still out of supplies for their supplemental test. They do that routinely. The other option for you is to do the herpes western blot and I can help you with that or you can do it through your own provider. You do need confirmation as there is a high chance that this is a false positive. There could be some cross-reactivity with your HSV one.
Terri
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