urethritis and herpes igg test

[1help]

Hi I’m a 30 yr old male, on Jan 17 approx. 2am I made a dumb drunken mistake and fooled around with a strange woman. by fooled around I mean, we were naked, we kissed, I inserted my fingers into her vagina, we did not have vaginal intercourse nor oral sex. we were just in bed naked fooling around then I left with an immediate feeling of regret. within the next 18 to 24 hrs I felt a constant urge to urinate. by jan 19th approx. 1pm I went to the ER. they gave me a zpak, & 1 shot of penicillin. the urge continued and was CONSTANT, feeling of full bladder and a feeling of urine still left my urethra after urination. I believe the constant peeing quickly developed into urethritis. I got 3 std tests and 3 cultures all neg. std tests were hiv, syphilis, mycoplasma, ureaplasma, chlamydia, gonorrhea. I was on cipro for 10 days and didn’t help much, also doctor said there was no infection found in any of my tests. these tests were done by my urologist. he said he thinks because I had the flu and pneumonia, about 1 month prior, that it can aggravate the bladder and bring on the symptoms I described. My pcp also felt I was ok. these symptoms went on for about 6 weeks with everyday day getting slightly better. I felt almost 100% for about 3 or 4 days and decided to masturbate a couple times. the feeling came back the next day and my urethra felt irritated again. I also noticed when I masterbate or irritate the urethra somehow, ive gotten small amount of clear discharge. this has happened about 5 times, and I seem to notice the discharge after I urinate. I have had no pain, no burning, no lesions, no blisters. It is now 8.5 weeks and I do feel much better. Against better judgement, and for my own peace of mind, I had a std clinic order me a herpes blood test. I probably should have never taken this test and now I am torn. I got the results back and it was 1.08 igg hsv2 equivalent. this test was done at 60 days after being with this woman, which I understand still may not be enough time. my question is with my low risk exposure and symptoms, am I overreacting, and should i put this all behind me? could the flu and pneumonia really have don’t all this? this is really getting to me mentally, I just wanted to get everything tested for closure. ive spent so much money on all of this. now I don’t know what to do. my symptoms when this started were: constant & frequent urge to urinated, mild urethra irritation (again no pain, just feeling of urine left inside urethra after urinate, and a tickle or slight itch once in awhile), dribbling after urination, and small, clear, (salvia-like) discharge after urination (5 times). Current symptoms: very mild urethra discomfort usually after ejaculation, dribbling urine after urination. I check my genital region multiple times a day and haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary(including inside my urethra). I sometimes think I may have a very mild radiating pain shooting around my genital region, or it could be in my head. About 6 months prior I got diagnosed with epididymitis, and it was NOT std related as I was tested multiple times. I have no money left and I just want to move on. one last time I just wanted to talk to an expert and give me their opinion. so any thoughts would help greatly, thanks for your time.

[1help]

i guess its possible my genitals could have touched hers by simply undressing and generally fooling around, but i don’t remember that precisely (i really don’t believe so), i can assure you that there was no intercourse what so ever or no oral sex.

[Terri Warren]

My opinion is that there was absolutely nothing in your contact with this woman that could have caused these symptoms. Period. I know you might not agree, but I think the timing of the development of these symptoms is a coincidence as it relates to your contact with the woman. Your equivocal herpes antibody test is interesting but not telling. When was your last sexual contact prior to this one, if you’ve had one?

Your symptoms sound to me like they could related to your prostate. Has anyone done a prostate exam or raised that as a possibility?

Terri

[1help]

Ive been with 1 woman prior to this experience where we were both monogamous for 8 years. We were probably together about 3 weeks prior. My pcp did a prostate exam and said everything seemmed fine, but put me on flomax during this whole ordeal. The flomax helped quite a bit but the side effects were very strong, so i stopped after about a week, the urge of urination came back. Ive had some people tell me this could be prostatitis, or chronic pelvic pain syndrome. The woman prior to this experience did not put me at any risk. I guess thats why i feel so horrible after this encounter. Could antibodies from the flu and pneumonia cause an igg test to become equivocal, or raise? In your personal opinion, should i just et this go until i see more obvious signs of infection? Or do you think i should retest? My pcp told me not to take this test, and the doctor at the clinic also said that itsnot recommended i take it but said i could if i wanted too. Thanks for your help.

[1help]

By “people have told me” i mean people online, the urologist thinks im fine, and i asked my pcp about prostatitis and he didnt seem like that was possible

[1help]

Also i mean i was with 1 woman for 8 yrs prior, before that 8 yrs, I’ve been with about 6 other woman in my lifetime

[Terri Warren]

I think you should probably stick to taking professional advice rather than lay people online.
It isn’t my opinion that you would have gotten prostatitis from this sexual encounter, that’s for sure. But the difficulties with urination and discomfort with ejaculation did make me wonder…. If your urologist didn’t think this was the case, then they are the one who did the exam and was there in person to make the diagnosis, not me.

Would I recommend that you test again? No, because there was nothing in the your experience that you described that you put at risk for herpes.

Terri

[1help]

Thanks for your advice, ive turned to online help becuase the docotors ive seen do not understand whats going on and i havent gotten a concrete answer.ive spent so much money on this lately i just wanted to seek professional advice from someone on this subject before i went and got retested or went and seen another doctor. I understand these may not be typical symptoms of hsv2, but since i was tested for everything else and all were neg, i figurd id get the herpes test for closure and it ended up confusing me more. Being i was expecting a negative outcome and turned out equivocal. Im going to try to put this behind me and move on with my life. I really do appreciate your advice and quick responses. If you have any other responses or advice on this subject id like to read it, thanks again.

[Terri Warren]

I totally understand and I was not including myself in the “online” group, just lay people 😉
I can tell you are very frustrated, not knowing what is going on here with your health. It was fine that you got the test for herpes but even if it had been positive, it had nothing to do with the encounter that you had with that woman. The things that you did with her did NOT put you at risk for an STD honestly. After 33 years of diagnosing and treating sexually transmitted infections, I know what puts people at risk and what does not and your experiences did NOT. I do hope you can move on with your life and put this behind you but if you can’t and you continue to have issues, I would recommend that you revisit the urologist to be certain there is nothing going on with the prostate gland.

My best to you!

Terri

[1help]

HI Terri I believe I paid correctly through pay pal. I am still having issues and the doctors still cant tell me what or why this is happening to me. Lately my issues have been after masturbation or sex. Now I am back with my original partner. I was told by my first urologist and a nurse practitioner at my current partners OB GYN that it was ok to resume sexual intercourse. Now normally the only time I have symptoms if after masturbation, or sex. I haven’t been technically diagnosed with urethritis but these are classic symptoms. Now my symptoms are only after ejaculation, slight urethra irritation located towards top of urethra, post void dribbling. Feels like an itch, tickle, or sting. No pain. Just an annoyance. It usually takes about 2 or 3 days for irritation to go away . I know you said I didn’t need further testing for herpes but my mind would not settle and I took a test 2 weeks after my first test. that was at 10 weeks and 3 days post exposure. I realize that still may not be enough time. My results were IGG hsv1 .25 neg, IGG hsv2 .20 neg(quest diagnostics). IGM results were also neg. I had my current partner go to our PCP and get a basic urine culture done it also came back neg. I also was on doxy for 28 days. seemed to work but I stayed away from sex and masturbation during that time. so I don’t know if it was the drugs, or that I just stopped messing w my penis.
I also stated awhile back that I got diagnosed with epididymitis back in October that was not std related.
My question is, could this urethritis irritation be related to the epididymitis at all?
Should I feel confident about my igg test results and leave that alone?
I also was going to go to my local health department and get GON and cyh test again, since of been off antibiotics for 2 weeks.
I was told by HowardH on medhelp that it could possibly be Chronic Pelvic Pain syndrome. Which I can see that some things are similar but my symptoms seem like classic urethritis.
I also called this woman that I encountered on Jan 17 and asked her if I had anything to worry about. She said she was std free and that we did not have sex anyhow.
Do you have any ideas or suggestions? I understand that this is hard and I need to follow up with my urologist but he is out of ideas. I just want to crawl into a hole when I feel like this.
is there anything that I should culture again or get swabbed for?
My urologist says next step is a cystoscopy, he says he’d rather not perform it because it probably wont show anything.
Thanks again for your help!!

[Terri Warren]

Honestly your symptoms are not at all classic for urethritis. Most men I see with urethritis have discomfort with urination and none with ejaculation. They also often have discharge from the end of the penis. Your symptoms sound more like prostate issues to me than urethritis. Many urologists use different medicines than doxy for prostatitis. Again, nothing you did puts you at risk for prostatitis but it could happen at the same time you are worried about the contact. Yes, my suggestion is to go back to the urologist for further evaluation. Herpes is simply not a concern here.

Terri

[1help]

Well in the beginning i had constant and frequent urination with urethral discomfort. So constant i went to the ER. At one point i probably went 20 times in one day. I also did have a clear discharge a few times, probably about 10 times since this began. So you don’t think i should run more tests for various stds? I have done a lot of research on prostatitis, and feel its a possibility. Or maybe an injury. I dont mean to waste your time i just want this to goa away

[1help]

Also i dont this the irritation comes from ejaculation itself, but from me messing w my urethra in the process

[Terri Warren]

You have posted nine times now and paid for six. I think you are a bit behind. Could you double check your number of posts just to be sure I’m correct please?

Terri

[1help]

Sorry my first 4 orginal post should have been 2 posts. I felt i keft out important info so they ended up being 4 posts total. As of today i did the same thing, posted once, then felt i left something important out so posted again right after just to add to the previous post

[Terri Warren]

I understand what happened but the system counts posts, not thoughts.
I’m not clear what you mean by messing with your urethra, but unless you are sticking things in there, masturbation or intercourse should not cause an irritation, in and of itself. I’m sure there were many times when you masturbated or ejaculated in some way when you did not have pain in the urethra.

Terri

[1help]

I mean the act of masterbation or sex irritates it i think. Not the act of ejaculation. Every since this problem. I dont remember a time that the act of sex or masterbation didnt cause some irritation

[1help]

Thanks again for your help if i have any other questions i will be sure to pay before asking

[Terri Warren]

Very good.

Terri

[1help]

Hi terri last question everything has been much better i am going to a urologist tomorrow for a checkup. Today after having sex, about 2 hours later a noticed a small red spot that looked like a blackhead in the middle. I didnt mess with it but it alarmed me very much. About 3 hours later i looked at it and the black tiny spot was gone. It doesnt itch, hurt, or burn but i am very alarmed. Heres 2 pictures.
Its not the brown birthmark but the red spot below it.
The second picture is zoomed in times 2.
Should i be worried. I was thinking maybe from sex. Does this look like anything i should worry about?

[Terri Warren]

I can see the redness you are describing but it is hard to say what might be causing this. When you go to the urologist, please ask them to evaluated this red area and swab test as needed. it could just be irritation from sex, yes.

Terri

[1help]

Im sorry i hadto post one more time. I took another blood test this morning and dr appt today. These are 2 pictures as of today about 24 hrs after i noticed it. Still no pain itch or burn. These are more clear. Redness is down a bit.

[Terri Warren]

I’m a little concerned about this area now. It appears to have two little scabs, would you agree? What did the doctor say about this area on your penis with the little scabs?

Terri

[1help]

Hi Terri. I seen the urologist today and he examined the area and said this was not an std. I told him i was very concerned and asked again “are you sure this isnt anything i should worry about” he said no this is not any std. I told him i got a blood test this morning. He said “well that’s good but i wouldnt worry about this at all.” so now im a little torn. Like i said this area hasn’t irriated me at all, and if i wasnt always looking down there i would have never noticed it. So i guess i have to wait for the blood test to come back. He just said its probably irritation from sex. I do NOT want to give this to anyone if it is something. I have tested for so many different stds and i feel ive been very careful. At 10 weeks 3 days, and my test being .20. For hsv2 and .25 hsv1, can i be confident? Again this picture is zomd in pretty good. I am scared though.

[Terri Warren]

Let’s see what the antibody test shows this time. It could certainly just be irritation from sex. He is in a far better position with an in person exam to sort out what is going on than I am. I feel reassured that he did not think this was herpes, that’s very good news. Let me know what the test shows if you want to.

This is your final post on this subscription. If you want me to answer more questions, please renew your subscription.

Terri

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