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Could A Sore In Genital Area Be Due To Herpes Infection?
Hi Doc, i have recently came out of a 4year relationship and now have a new partner that i have been exclusively been sleeping with for the past 3months. i have recently developed a sore in my genital area. though at 1st it was an ingrown hair or a scratch which i have done before till it got really annoying an stinging. i went to the doc she says it looks like herpes but there was no other evidence and said it was too small to take a good enough sample to test to make sure. she put me on antibiotics anyway and said she would like to see me in four months to blood test me. my question is could it be that its not really herpes?? i was told i had genital warts before and them i was tested and all tests for every std came back negative and if it happens to be that it is im guessing it would be from oral sex because we always use a condom but we kiss all the time and i have no outbreaks anywhere else to prove i have herpes.
Mon, 15 Dec 2014
Hello. Thank you for writing to us at healthcaremagic
Genital herpes commonly presents with genital sores which may have a painful or burning sensation.
Many individuals are not aware that they have genital herpes. Herpes may commonly be confused with an ingrown hair.
It is not really possible to know whether you acquired herpes from your current partner or from your previous partner. The reason being that primary genital herpes (first infection) can be asymptomatic and therefore can go unnoticed in about 50% of new infections.
Therefore, when genital herpes first manifests, that does not necessarily mean that it is a recently acquired infection. It might have been acquired earlier.
Herpes is acquired by close/intimate contact with infected skin or mucosa. The type of sexual contact can be either oral, vaginal or anal sex.
A condom does afford some protection against genital herpes but it is not 100% because a condom covers only the shaft of penis and therefore might leave a lot of infected area exposed during sex.
If herpes is not obvious clinically, a blood test would be confirmatory. A blood test for herpes can be performed earliest at 2 weeks to detect the presence of antibodies against the virus.
Regards
Genital herpes commonly presents with genital sores which may have a painful or burning sensation.
Many individuals are not aware that they have genital herpes. Herpes may commonly be confused with an ingrown hair.
It is not really possible to know whether you acquired herpes from your current partner or from your previous partner. The reason being that primary genital herpes (first infection) can be asymptomatic and therefore can go unnoticed in about 50% of new infections.
Therefore, when genital herpes first manifests, that does not necessarily mean that it is a recently acquired infection. It might have been acquired earlier.
Herpes is acquired by close/intimate contact with infected skin or mucosa. The type of sexual contact can be either oral, vaginal or anal sex.
A condom does afford some protection against genital herpes but it is not 100% because a condom covers only the shaft of penis and therefore might leave a lot of infected area exposed during sex.
If herpes is not obvious clinically, a blood test would be confirmatory. A blood test for herpes can be performed earliest at 2 weeks to detect the presence of antibodies against the virus.
Regards
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