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I’m not sure if it’s herpes


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At the end of last month I noticed what looked like a pimple on the shaft of my penis by the scrotum. At first I ignored it as being just a weird pimple and tried not to overthink it as I am one to do. Then at the start of this month I noticed my urine began to burn and I was feeling pain in my waist area, my butt, my testicles, and my penis itself. Scared I went to a walk in clinic. The doctor told me she thought the bump was qenital warts but that she believed that the pain was either in my head or caused by a coincidental UTI. They ran tests for std but apparently did not include herpes in the test. Which I didn’t know at the time. Wanting a second opinion I went to a urologist who took one look at the bump and declared that it was nothing. He ran his own urine analysis for the pain and buring urine though. 

       A few days later I got a cut on ny lip that in full disclosure I sort of made myself while trying to pop what I thought might be a cold sore. I went to a demertologist the next day and she from sight confirmed that I had a cold sore for which she perscribed me valtrex. I feel I should point out that the cold sore never hurt or itched as people said it should. She also biopsied the bump on the shaft of my penis to test it directly but did no other std tests since she knew the walk in clinic was still running their tests. Which she assumed, as I did at the time, that herpes would be included in that test. She was the first to give me results. She let me know that the bump from my penis was certainly just acne. 

    My tests all came back clean for everything. The urologist explained that the urine of mine that he tested had no white or red blood cells and so there was no sign of an infection. The pain subsided greatly over the week as I was on valtrex although from what I understand a uti could easily have subsided in that time. (Although even as I write this the pain is not completely gone but the burning urination is almost entirely gone and I’ve noticed that drinking more water than usual does seem to make the burning less likely.) 

      The day I finished the valtrex (last tuesday) I noticed swelling on my anus. At first I myself believed that was simply a hemorrhoid but later that day I noticed what appeared to be a white head on the swelling. I went immediately to the walk in clinic again and a different dr looked at it and said it was a hemorrhoid and looked infected so he gave me an antibiotic and told me to take sitz baths to eas the discomfort the hemorrhoid was causing. I started using the sitz bath thursday morning and noticed it did help a lot with the disconfort and the swelling had already gone down by then. Finally I got an appointment with a GP this Friday (day before yesterday ). He looked at my anus but said he didnt really see anything at all except what was maybe a very minor hemorrhoid. He did send me to get a blood test (finally!!) but I wont have the results for almost a week. Then today (because I cant stop checking) I noticed what appears to be two or three little bumps right on the inside of my anus. I can’t be sure though as I can’t get a great look myself obviously. 

    My question is this. Does this sound like anyone’s experience with herpes? I’m not a believer in coincidence and especially the presence of what was most likely a cold sore during all of this is hard for me to believe is just happenstance. 

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 I went to the walk in after I posted this and the PA that saw me said the bumps looked like genital warts. That’s sorta hard for me to believe given the other growth was originally deemed genital warts and that was shown to not be the case. In the past few days I feel they’ve gotten worse. I still haven’t gotten my test reaults but I feel pretty sure at this point that it is in fact herpes. They hurt a little bit some of the time but I was also having pain at what the location of what had been deemed a hemorrhoid that was a little worse. 

I don’t know what to do if it is. I really can’t believe it would be me. I know it could be anyone but I’ve lived with basically no sex life. I’ve been with less than ten guys and most only one time. That’s not like a choice I’ve always wanted a relationship but I’m just really bad at meeting people in general. I don’t make many friends either. The longest I’ve ever been with a guy was a month and a half and he didnt really want a relationship with me. I don’t have much in the ways of self confidence and much less so when it comes to men. I don’t see how I could ever have the guts to tell someone that. If someone told me that I wouldn’t turn them away but I don’t know how I could ever feel comfortable in believing that wouldn’t be the end of the relationship once I told someone. It just feels like my odds were already so bad at ever meeting someone and now my odds are even worse. 

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  • 2 months later...

I did. My results came back negative and I was told it most likely is HPV. Months have gone by now and I still feel unsure if I trust the HPV diagnosis. I plan to go back to the doctor soon but have been apprehensive about doing so because the entire experience left me rather dismissive of doctors. None of them ever really took my concerns seriously. I went to a gastro because I was told that they would remove the ‘warts’ (not 100% sure that’s what they are). The gastro I saw hardly looked and told me there was nothing there although when I got home an hour later I checked and they were absolutely still there. He said even if he did see them there was nothing he would do about them anyway. I asked him what I should do if I did have HPV (something all the drs dismissed itself as no big deal) and he basically told me that everyone has it and I should pretty much ignore it. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to see a bright day at the end of this tunnel but at this point it doesn’t really matter. I haven’t had any romantic life really so for me it is I guess more of an inconvenience as I very well might never have dated anyone again anyway. So I got my results and I still don’t really know what’s up so that’s that

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By gastro doctor, do you mean GI doctor? That is not the type of doctor to see for genital warts. A dermatologist can help you with this. They will freeze them. It stings a little bit, but isn't terribly painful (I have not had genital warts but I had a wart on a sensitive part of my nose that was frozen and it was not bad at all). You may have to go for multiple treatments to fully get rid of them. 

If you're not sure if this is HPV or herpes or something else, you really should see a dermatologist anyway. 

If this is HPV, the doctor is right - HPV isn't a very big deal. The strains that cause warts are not considered high risk (ie, the strains that can lead to cancer).

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  • 4 weeks later...

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