Last Friday I noticed that I had a YI so I purchased over the counter medication and it seemed that I had caught it early because Saturday I felt significantly better. I (i know this is awful) had sex with my boyfriend Saturday night, using protection as always. On Sunday evening I noticed that my vagina was quite swollen and enflamed and that there were some redish bumps amidst the swelling. I immediately paniced and made an appt. with my doctor for Tuesday.

Let me also mention that I am always VERY careful. I had unprotected sex with a boyfriend about 4 years ago. He was tested before we ever slept together (now I wonder, tested for everything?) and it seems that if I do have herpes it would have had to be from him or from a time when a condom broke.

Regardless, my doctor said that what I had was not an elevated yeast infection of any sort (from having sex) and that one of my bumps looked like it could turn into the beginning stage of herpes. She tested and I will get the results Monday.

She told me to get an A&D over the counter cream, which I did,and hwen I asked her what to do in the meantime if this presisted she thought for a while and siad she'd prescribe me with a herpes medication as it wouldn't do any harm to my body. She told me to discontinue the yeast infection cream that I was using as she suggested this may have irritated whatever state (infection or herpes) I was in.

So here's my question: Last night I took one of the pills and used A&D. I took a second this morning and more A&D. At noon today I was completely 100% cleared up. The bumps never turned into sores, they never "burned" (although they were quite itchy Mon & Tues) I never had the tingly feeling and iddn't notice a headache, etc. I'm driving myself absolutely insane wondering if I have herpes or not. My question is this- how likely is it that I would have the virus and clear up that quickly, never get sores, nad never experience the burning that is often described as a side effect?? Basically, I would love to be able to ease my mind in the least bit. I can't sleep, or stop thinking about this.

THanks in advance.

First of all, let me explain that if you do have herpes, using a condom will not protect your boyfriend from contracting it. A condom does not cover enough area to prevent the skin to skin contact that spreads the virus.

The symptoms you describe do sound like those of herpes, and the fact that you didn't exhibit textbook symptoms does not rule out the possibility. Not all outbreaks materialize into raw sores. Some are very mild and the symptoms disappear within a day or two.

If your dr did a blood test and it comes back negative, I would advise being retested in about 3 months, because if it's a very recent infection, you probably won't have enough antibodies in your blood yet for the test to detect. That's the problem with blood tests and new infections... too often they return a false negative result. Culture tests that come back positive are more reliable, but there has to be an active ob for it to work.

It's impossible for me to say whether you have it or not, and I hope you don't. I just want you to understand that, depending on the time line of infection, sometimes a second test is required for an accurate reading. Good luck to you. Hope everything turns out well.