Reply To: Likelihood of HSV2 transmission female to male?

[concernedman]

Hello Dr. Warren,

To give you an update on the situation, I have been constantly checking myself for symptoms since my post last week. I went to an urgent care clinic on Saturday 11/11 and had a virtual visit later that same evening after I had noticed some red patches on the head of my penis. Only one of them had slight itchiness. Upon inspection and hearing about my lack of any other symptoms (swollen lymph nodes, flu symptoms, no bumps/lesions on shaft of penis), the nurse said it didn’t look like herpes but still prescribed me Valtrex and did a swab, urine and blood test, which I should receive the results for soon. During the virtual visit, the doctor noticed I had a lesion on the underside of the head of my penis that was consistent with a genital wart for HPV and said the other redness on my shaft was from penile eczema. I was prescribed a cream and ointment for both issues which I’ve started (only the eczema, because there was a hold up getting the other prescription).

The HPV diagnosis was a shock/surprise and I let my partner know. The doctor’s reasoning was that my stress levels over the last week (barely eating and sleeping) exacerbated the HPV to make the wart itchy. So far, it’s been 8 days since my exposure and I still haven’t had any HSV symptoms but am still very anxious and scared that it will change. I just want to follow up with you with my earlier questions.

1) How likely (high, low, percentages) is it that I will develop genital herpes from those two encounters?

2) If I don’t have any lesions form in after 10 days (I’m on day 8), will that mean that I’m OK?

3) Is two weeks too early for me to take a blood test?

4) Is there anything I can do now, or do I just have to wait until I have symptoms?

Thank you