blahblah123
06-03-2005, 04:19 PM
Is dry skin a symptom/side effect of herpes? As I said in my earlier post (if you could respond to that too, it would be great), my "symptoms" started with little, painless skin-colored bumps on some of my fingers that went away, but my hands still have some dry skin (and this is six weeks after my "exposure"). Also, until the single sore that is on the head of my penis now, everything was normal except I had some dry skin on the head of my penis and on the top half of the shaft. Some of the skin is still dry. Can anyone help with this??? Thanks!
youandme
06-04-2005, 11:41 AM
Hi,
The thing with herpes is that many people post here a variety of symptoms and herpes just canīt be diagnosed that way. I know you want answers, but the only way to get them for sure is through a visit to a doctorīs office.
If you have a blister you need to get a swab asap. Keep in mind though that swabs often give false negatives, itīs not a very sure way to know if you have herpes or not.
The better way is to have a blood test done. This needs to be done 12-16 weeks past possible exposure or even better, past the time when your symptoms started. You need to wait this long because it takes time for you body to build antibodies to herpes. So any test done before that time span could still give a you a false negative. On the other hand a positive result would be positive, not much chance for false results there.
You need to get a type specific Igg blood test. Donīt bother with an Igm test (if that would be offered to you), it does not distinguish type and is less accurate anyway.
If you would be positive for hsv-1 only, then that is a bit complicated since it would not tell you the location of your herpes. It could be only oral, or it could be only genital, or it could be both. In that case a positive swab of the genital region would be the only way to know for sure. A positive hsv-2 result on the other hand would indicate quite well that you have it genitally, oral hsv-2 is very rare.
I know the wait is hard, but this is the only way youīll know for sure. Visual diagnosis is not a good indication of herpes, the symptoms are so varied.
Good luck!
