I get cold sores. Thats a fact.I've had more recently b/c of stress. I do not know if it is type 1 or 2.Awhile back i had unprotected sex and oral with a girl that supposedly has herpes, of course she says she doesn't. After this (a while later) is when I noticed my 1st cold sore ever. I went to the doctor and he gave me some valtrex and bactroban and blah. I was also worried because of bumps around the head of my penis. I showed those to him and he diagnosed them as PPP. You can read more about that in the mens sexual health board. While this is going on, it seems like my scrotum area itches severely. what do i do? it itches more and more the more i think about it. maybe its just mental but i doubt it. so even i got a blood test for herpes, obviously it will show up cause of cold sores, but what about genital. i have never had any sores or breakouts down there, just this itching on my scrotum.

what to do???? awwwhhh

Hi Scrubs! Long time no post. Let us know what your blood tests come back as. I hope it was a type-specific test or it's not really going to tell you much. I know you've suspected you have oral HSV-2 so a type-specific test would be the best blood test to get.

The only way you're going to know for sure if your penis sores are herpes is to get your doc to do a swab test on a fresh one. Sorry but I don't really have the time to chase after info about PPP but maybe you could summarise for us what it is.

As for your scrotum, has your doc looked at it? Maybe it's just a yeast infection or jock itch? If you're taking a topical cream for the PPP, is it possible it's an allergic reaction? Are there any other visible symptoms associated with the itching?

TheOneInFour

PPP is short for "Pearly Penile Papules"
PPP are dome-like white or flesh colored bumps that appear on the rim of the penis head in about 1 out of 10 men. They are completely harmless. Many PPP cases are misdiagnosed as early genital warts. Many men with these annoying but harmless bumps are scared to have sex in the light b/c they are scared the girl will freak out, which is very true. I don't know why PPP is not talked about in Sex Ed, or anywhere else. But if you do a websearch on pearly penile papules you will find many sites with pics and info. So what I am basically trying to say they are not really sores, but just little harmless and non-transmittable bumps that probably scares the hell out of 1 in 10 men that don't know about it.

Also I have not taken a blood test at all OneinFour, what is the real point of paying money to get one done?
I mean I realize it will tell me type 1 or type 2, but what does it matter really? A cold sore is a cold sore regardless. If you can give me a good enough reason to find out the type I may give in and do it, so please clue me in you know why I should. All I get is cold sores to remind ya, nothing below the belt yet, just itching.

As far as the scrotum area itch, there is really nothing to look at if I showed my doctor. There is no rash, sore, maybe some slight redness after recent itching but that is it. Maybe I should just get some cream or something? I wonder if shaving on the good ol jolly fellas would help at all. LOL. I try doing a web search on jock itch but don't really find anything good. Anyone with some advice feel free to help.

thanks

Thanks for the crash course in PPP. I can understand why both men and women would be concerned seeing those! Seems there are a lot of things that would benefit sex-ed classes that aren't there. <sigh> But then it might give young people an excuse not to check out similar looking stuff that is more serious.

There is one reason I can think of why you should probably get blood tested for herpes type at some point. If you do have oral type-2 it could be passed on much more easily to a partner when giving oral sex, which means your partner should be aware of this.

If you're not with a partner now, and if you would not normally have that level of intimate contact with someone on the spur of the moment, you could wait until the opportunity seems about to present itself before doing the test...or until you've got a bit of extra cash. I think it takes about 2 weeks for test results to come back. However, if you're likely to move quickly into oral sex with someone, it might be better to get the test done at your earliest opportunity so that you're prepared.

As far as the scrotum itch goes, if you see a doc and describe the symptoms, even if there's nothing visual to see, s/he could still help diagnose it and maybe prescribe something. I'm not quite sure why you posted about this here, though. Do you suspect it could be herpes? If it's herpes I would think it's likely to be in one particular spot, not general itching. But I'm not a doc.

The1in4