Question:
Hi,

I'm new to this forum, and this is my first post (which is not unlike many other first posts in this forum, I imagine). Anyway, I think I may have herpes, but I don't know how I got it. Here's the scenario:

Symptoms:
For the past 3.5 weeks or so I've had a group of about 4 small blisters around the top of the shaft of my penis. Near the bottom of the head of the penis there also appears to be a very small spot that looks like skin tissue. These blisters have giving me no pain other than some slight irriatation at the beginining while having sex (with a condom of course). There has been no itching.

For about the past 5 days (just cleared up today, actually) - starting 3 weeks or so after the blisters appeared - I've had a light cold - basically just a running nose. This of course could be (and I imagine is) totally unrelated with the above, but since I don't get colds too often, I thought it would be best to mention it here in case getting a cold several weeks after blisters appears is a sign of herpes.

That's about it for my symptoms.

Causes?
I've only had one sexual partner (with my current girlfriend of 7 months). Before that, I had a few relationships that involved mutual masturbastion and genital exposure with the body, but no direct genital to genital contact or penetration whatsoever. Before our relationshio, my girlfriend had had oral sex with a few others and she had sex once, with a condom, with someone who had been recently tested for stds (and was clear). In all our previous encounters, we've never noticed anything that looked like herpes in our partners. Both myself and she never had any outbreak of herpes before our relationship. We've been having sex and oral sex since near the begining of our relationship, and never had expereinced any seeming outbreaks until recently.

About 4 weeks before the blisters appeared on my penis, she had a strange, fairly large rash on her left inner thigh that looked somewhat like poison ivy (though no signs of anything strange anywhere else on her body). She has no idea how she got this rash. It doesn't appear to have the generic look of herpes (that is, the one I have gathered from perusing internet photos). She had no other symptoms or notable ills. This rash has totally cleared up in the past week or so, though had been pretty much cleared up several weeks before that.

For the record, my blisters appear to be nothing like her rash and I still dont think it's related...but then again, I'm not sure.

Also, my girlfriend has given me oral sex while I've had these blisters, and I've given her oral sex while she has had her rash, and we have no cold sores whatsoever on our face (or any other symptoms elsewhere on our body).


So here are my basic questions and concerns:

Firstly, does this even sound like herpes? If not herpes, what could blisters on the penis indicate?

Assuming that one of us may have a gotten herpes from another partner, Is it possible for the first outbreak of herpes to occur over 8 months after your coming in contact with it?

Could one of us have gotten herpes from someone we've had non sexual contact with or from other non-personal contact? I've read on the internet that herpes can only be gotten from close contact with another who has it, but wasn't sure what to believe.


Any advice or insights anyone can offer would be greatly greatly appreciated. Please feel free to pose any other questions to me as well in case more info might be needed for your judgements.

Thanks!
Johnie

Answer:
Have you made an appointment to see your doctor yet?

Angela :wink:

Answer:
Have you made an appointment to see your doctor yet?

Angela :wink:
No - my finances are very limited now, and I dont have health insurance. I was awaiting a response to my concerns listed above before I decided to spend the money to see a doctor. If you could answer any of the questions I posted, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Answer:
Firstly, does this even sound like herpes? If not herpes, what could blisters on the penis indicate? Yes, it sounds like it could be Herpes. Herpes can trick you, it has many different looks to it. Sometimes I get an outbreak with just one painful bump, sometimes it's several bumps spread out, sometimes it's in a cluster. There is only one way to tell for sure, and that's to see a doctor.

Assuming that one of us may have a gotten herpes from another partner, Is it possible for the first outbreak of herpes to occur over 8 months after your coming in contact with it? Yes, it can even show up years later after you first contracted it. Some show no symptoms their whole life, lucky! I believe this has to do with the amount of virus you are given the first time you are infected with it. This is just my opinion, but I think it's true. Also if you get antivirals right away it can help in the long run. The smaller number of viruses you have in your sells the less capable it is to produce large outbreaks, again this is just my observations.


Could one of us have gotten herpes from someone we've had non sexual contact with or from other non-personal contact? I've read on the internet that herpes can only be gotten from close contact with another who has it, but wasn't sure what to believe. Yes, let's say your girl shaved her inner thigh and had some razor burn where the skin was slightly broken. If some dude that was shedding the virus from his testicles rubbed them on her razor burn she could get it. You don't have to be in the middle of an outbreak to transmit the virus. In my experience, and I've been infected with both type one and two for over 20 years, is that type 2 is much more viral and spreads much easier than type 1. It's a demon, and it knows what you are doing it seems like.

Get a blood test and find out if you have it, if you don't I would recommend changing your life now before you do get it. If you do have it, well welcome to the club no one wants to be in.

Monster

Answer:
Have you made an appointment to see your doctor yet?

Angela :wink:
No - my finances are very limited now, and I dont have health insurance. I was awaiting a response to my concerns listed above before I decided to spend the money to see a doctor. If you could answer any of the questions I posted, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Very well then ~

I'll see what I can do.

Angela :wink: