Is this herpes or Folliculitis?
Posted , 4 users are following.
Within the last 2 weeks I began having unprotected sex with a new guy. I’m a 21 year old female and condoms have consistently given me UTIs so I avoid them. About 5 days ago I noticed a 3 bumps on my labia Majora. I gently squeezed 1 a little and some clear liquid came out of it and I stopped messing with it. I figured they were razor bumps and that they’d go away within a few days. The next day, I started having painful urination. I figured it was probably a UTI so I drank a lot of water and cranberry juice. At this point 2 of the bumps had shrunken down and one had gotten bigger. The big one was just red and swollen at first and then it turned into a small ulcer. And it became very painful to touch and where it’s positioned it’s basically always touching something. I realized this was hurting way worse than any UTI I had before so I looked up STD symptoms and was worried it was herpes. After reading the symptoms I checked my lymph glands, and the ones by my groin are tender, I don’t know if that counts as swollen? They only hurt when I press on them. Also within the last day or so, my whole area down there, including my butt, has had a constant tingling/burning sensation. And when I examined closely yesterday I discovered that the ulcer now had some other red little bumps/cuts right around it. They’re much smaller and look raw and like they maybe have clear liquid in them if anything at all. So yeah, bumps and tingling and lymph glands and painful urination. According to the internet all these signs point to herpes. The bumps don’t look exactly like any of the herpes photos on google, but so many of them look so different from eachother so I don’t know. I went to a walk-in clinic today and the doctor said it doesn’t look like herpes. She thinks I have Folliculitis. I got tested anyways and will get the results in a few days but for now she’s treating me for Folliculitis and I’ll be getting antibiotics and cream for it or something. But I did some research on Folliculitis and I’m not so sure. They’re not a bunch of small white ones like all the pictures online show. And nothing I read about Folliculitis says anything about ulcers, a tingling/burning butt or lymph nodes. I know it’s sorta pointless to speculate at this point but I just don’t want to get it in my head that it’s not herpes, to be completely let down and defeated if I find out that it is. My grandpa always says that one of his biggest mistakes as a parent and in life, is blindly trusting a doctors opinions. He says countless times throughout his life doctors have confidently told him or his family something that turned out to be wrong. Can someone confirm my skepticism? Does anyone else think she could easily be wrong, considering the symptoms I’m having? Maybe it’s something else entirely? Or am I just being paranoid? I know there’s no clear answers, I’m just wondering what anyone else thinks about it. Is there a way for me to post a picture? I think that would be really helpful. Thanks!
0 likes, 4 replies
david911 emily98557
Posted
I understand the stress you're going through right now. So, I'd suggest you take the very first step, which you obviously haven't. RELAX your mind. Don't throw yourself into emotional bursts; that would trigger symptoms that have nothing to do with anything, symptoms that you shouldn't have.
The next important thing you should do is leave Dr. Google alone; he makes a bad situation worse by feeding wrong and exaggerated info.
If you want to share a picture, which I encourage you to, make sure you're not chatting/posting from a cellphone; a cellphone wouldn't give you any option to share a picture. But you may chat specifically from an iPad (iPads are excellent for this forum and general browsing) or a computer. When you chat from either an iPad or a computer, you should see a chat window similar to the one that I attach below. 👇 Click on that 4th icon as shown in the illustration in the attachment.
emily98557 david911
Posted
Thank you for responding and for your advice! I know I need to chill out but I just can't stop thinking about it. It's still pretty painful right now so whatever I try to do to distract myself does not seem to be enough, ugh. This is the best picture I could get.
david911 emily98557
Posted
You're welcome. From what I see, I think it's a good idea to get it checked out; that looks very painful and concerning. It's probably an infection. Go get tested, please.
Guest emily98557
Posted
i know this is old but did you ever find out what it was? i have something similar but mine is just a single one.
thanks!