Reply To: Herpes and Newborn

[hope]

I purchased three more questions online.

First, I wanted to follow-up and thank you for your last response. I saw my PCP instead of my OB/GYN, and he diagnosed me with a yeast infection and prescribed a topical treatment. The burning, itching, and redness are now gone.

However, I am still getting small bumps on my buttocks. When I visited my PCP, there were none visible so he could not look at them. However, since that visit a week ago, I know have three of these bumps. I’ll describe my symptoms, and then get to my questions.

Since my pregnancy, I have been getting small red bumps on my buttocks. They occur often. These bumps are about the size of a pinhead and are red. They never occur in the same spot twice. To the naked eye, they look like small, flat red marks, but when I look at them using a 10x magnifying mirror, I can see what look like very tiny bumps that could be blisters. Because they are so small, I can’t tell if they are filled with clear fluid. They do not crust over or scab over, but last about 3 days and then fade away. They do not occur in groups, but are single bumps about ½ to 1 inch apart. They do not itch or burn, but I may have felt subtle tingling before they occurred. (or it could just be me over analyzing normal feelings.) However, the symptoms are so subtle that if I wasn’t obsessing over the bumps, I wouldn’t even know they were there.

I normally wouldn’t worry about them, but we have managed to keep my partner herpes free for almost four years. (He gets tested regularly.) We have done this by taking suppressive medication and watching for prodome signs and not having sex during prodome or outbreaks. (My outbreaks have always been the same for the last 6 years.) I’m worried that after 6 years, my outbreaks have changed and that I no longer have the same knowledge of them, and these bumps could infect my partner. Like I said, I don’t even know when they are occurring unless I look everyday.

My questions are:

1. Do these symptoms sound like a herpes outbreak to you?

2. Is there a test that can be done to determine if these bumps are herpes sores? How would I go about getting that test done?

Also, just one more curiosity really. I’ve been reading that there are trials for therapeutic vaccines. In your professional opinion, do you think we’ll have a therapeutic vaccine or at least a better treatment anytime soon?