Do herpes blisters always break open become oozing sores?
About once every few months, I get a bump on my labia. It's always in the same spot. It's about the diameter of a pencil eraser. It's tender and somewhat painful to the touch. However, it never breaks open and turns into an oozing sore. It usually just shrinks and disappears. Sometimes it shows up, shrinks a fair amount, gets big again, and then shrinks and disappears.
I know I should see a doctor about it, but it's the weekend now, and I know the bump will be gone by Monday. Should I see a doctor anyway? Does this sound like herpes?
About once every few months, I get a bump on my labia. It's always in the same spot. It's about the diameter of a pencil eraser. It's tender and somewhat painful to the touch. However, it never breaks open and turns into an oozing sore. It usually just shrinks and disappears. Sometimes it shows up, shrinks a fair amount, gets big again, and then shrinks and disappears.
I know I should see a doctor about it, but it's the weekend now, and I know the bump will be gone by Monday. Should I see a doctor anyway? Does this sound like herpes?
Edited at 2012-05-05 02:14 am (UTC)
Luck!
Thanks!
Caroline
for the VP Team
I used to get something like what you're describing, usually around the time of my period - and also always in the same spot. My doctor said that they were small skin cysts when I showed him, although they drove me crazy for awhile because I had no idea what they were.
If you're still concerned, a herpes blood test is probably the best bet. If you get one, make sure it's a modern IgG (not IgM, these are no good for herpes diagnosis) test that differentiates between types 1 and 2, like HerpeSelect. It's true that you could have herpes 1 genitally (which typically causes cold sores, but can often cause genital herpes too, if you receive oral sex from someone who has it and you're not yet infected), but usually (not always) outbreaks of genital HSV-1 are infrequent (1 per year or less), and more mild. HSV-2, on the other hand, is what people usually associate with genital herpes, and it often causes many more outbreaks per year.
Basically - most (at least more than half) of the population has HSV-1. Most get it orally, although probably almost half (I haven't looked at the statistics in awhile) of genital herpes cases are now caused by HSV-1. HSV-1 does not thrive well in the genital area though, so people typically don't get many outbreaks, and it also actually tends to be a lot more difficult to transmit a genital infection than an oral infection of HSV-1 (you'd be more likely to get it from oral sex with someone who gets cold sores than from genital sex from someone who has it).
HSV-2 is less common, although last time I checked, about 25% of women are infected - although most don't know it. HSV-2 doesn't really like the oral area at all, so it's not common to contract it orally, and recurrent outbreaks there are very rare. If a blood test came back positive for HSV-2, you could probably assume that you had a genital infection.
A swab is the ideal test if it comes back positive, because you can have it typed for type 1 or 2 after culture and then know for sure the location where you're infected (a blood test could show type 1 but you might not know for sure if it's an oral or genital infection), but unfortunately, there are tons of false negatives - especially if it isn't your initial outbreak. So the problem with that is that even if it comes back negative, you wouldn't really know for sure.
Like I said though, it would be unusual for HSV to manifest as a bump under the skin, if that's what it is. You might be able to show this bump do your doctor at some point, and maybe he/she will be able to tell you whether or not it looks like it could possibly be HSV, or something else entirely.
You might want to check out racoon.com (yes, spelled incorrectly), and click on the herpes home page. There's a lot of helpful information there, because I know that I might have totally confused you with this post.
Good luck!
Edited at 2012-05-05 01:03 pm (UTC)