Hi everyone, I am experiencing a weird set of symptoms after having unprotected sex with someone who is HSV2 positive. I already have OHSV1. Here is some background and the timeline for the events:
Background: 29M, contracted OHSV1 in June 2024, I was diagnosed via both IGG test and swab test, my IGG also came back negative for HSV2. Ever since then I’ve had 3 outbreaks outside of the lip including the primary infection, but very frequent, perhaps monthly, sores inside the mouth on the gums basically inside of the cheek. I have not been taking anything for these except topical over the counter things like lysine ointment and abreva. I only ever took one week long treatment of Valtrex during my initial OHSV1 outbreak.
March 29th: I had unprotected sex with a girl for several hours. It began for an hour of grinding and then we had penetrative vaginal sex twice for about 20 minutes each. I had disclosed to her about my OHSV1 before sex but she didn’t.
Afterwards she told me she has HSV2, and gave me two doses of 2 pills each of Valtrex. She said she contracted it recently (in September of last year) and is on daily Valtrex, but honestly considering her earlier deception I don’t know how true that is. The Valtrex pill bottle looked full and I couldn’t look at the date properly to confirm how long she’s had that bottle.
From this point forward, I started inspecting my penis several times daily, perhaps a bit roughly at times, sometimes twisting and stretching to get a better and closer look at any developing rashes or anything.
Around April 3rd: I started experiencing pain in the urethra and meatus without any visible lesions. The pain felt like a pinching sensation sort of or achiness or soreness. The pain persisted intermittently for the rest of the month ebbing and flowing. Sometimes I experienced a brief burning sensation in the glans too. No visible lesions occurred at all.
April 10th: I got tested at planned parenthood for everything except HSV, and everything came back negative. I was experiencing intermittent pain by this point in the urethra and meatus, but not while urinating at all. Still no lesions but some areas on the glans looked slightly reddish and had red spots but not clustered together and what appeared to be painful fissures. When I stopped stretching my glans these quickly subsided.
April 25th: I visited the hospital for another round of tests, including HSV2. The reason I visited the hospital was the urethral and meatus pain which was still there, even though it wasn’t severe enough to impede my daily life, it was still there all day and causing me immense stress and anxiety. I also experienced pain deep inside the medial side of the thigh, some of it was unbearable and made it hard to stand but lasted only for a few seconds, this pain was only for a short period.
I did a HSV IGG test, and two swab tests. The genital swab was on the corona of the penis on an area I was really suspicious of, NOT the urethra, and the oral swab was for an active lesion inside my mouth which confirmed it was indeed HSV1 inside my mouth and not canker sores. However the IGG test for both HSV1 and 2 as well as the genital swab came back negative. Everything else came back negative except for trace leukocytes esterase in the urinalysis which triggered a urine culture test that also came back negative.
I was prescribed Valtrex and other topical treatments for my mouth sore.
I refrained from taking the Valtrex for a while but on May 1st I started taking Valtrex and since then I’ve taken 3 doses, and the urethral pain began subsiding.
So in essence, my primary symptoms is urethral and meatus pain with no active lesion, no enlarged lymph nodes, no fever, just the urethral and meatus pain that persisted for about a month. I understand that isn’t a typical presentation of HSV2, however I am stumped at what else it could be since it seemingly responded to Valtrex. I have also considered CPPS since I have been undergoing extreme stress and anxiety due to this issue paired with the physical inspections, which may have contributed to the pain but now I am not sure.
Another question I have for the esteemed members of this group, does the frequent outbreaks of OHSV1 inside my mouth mean I am immunocompromised? Since I tested negative for the IGG test recently, does that mean my body is essentially not fighting it? (Assuming the test is accurate, I know it has a chance of being false).
Thank you for reading this and I’m looking forward to hear everone’s opinion. Sorry if this is a bit complicated or hard to digest but I’m willing to answer any questions.