Hello, fellow VPers! As you probably know, from time to time the VP Team makes posts on behalf of people who wish to remain anonymous or who do not have LJ accounts. This is one such post. Thank you in advance for your helpful and awesome comments. :)
Jocey
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So, I'm in the middle of herpes scare and am not sure what to do.
It all started two nights ago when my vagina felt a bit more warm and uncomfortable than its usual, so I looked down there with a mirror and prodded around a bit to see if there was anything weird going on. I thought I saw two small, pretty symmetrical dots / indents on each side of the area of my hymen right below my vagina that I wasn't sure I'd seen before. Neither were raised or inflamed-looking. I pressed at one and nothing came out, I pressed at the other and milky white-fluid came out, after which I flipped out and assumed I had herpes. (I've had oral sex with one guy without protection, but have no experience with penetrative sex. The one guy I've been with started rubbing his penis around my general genital area without protection, but when I noticed he wasn't wearing a condom, I asked him to put one on.)
I went to the university health services and asked the doctor if I could get tested and if she could take a look to see if I had anything unusual going on down there. She looked and said everything was completely normal; I asked again if there were any abscesses and she said no. I got tested for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea, both of which came back negative, but when I asked about the herpes test, the nurse said that they needed an open sore and that blood tests often gave back false positives.
This was kind of a relief, but I still didn't know what had happened the night before with the white fluid and was too scared to ask about it (which I now feel incredibly stupid and guilty about), especially since she'd said that everything looked completely fine. Since then, I've inspecting my vaginal area a few times a day, trying to figure out if I should believe my doctor or not. I did some googling and found out the Bartholin duct gland openings would actually be in the exact same general spots I'm worried about, but even then, why does more white liquid come out of one than the other, and is it even supposed to be white? I'm also currently feeling tender again, along with a barely noticeable bit of itchness now, although I don't know how much I can contribute that to a) the high volume of anxious and panicked prodding I've done over the past 48 hours and b) pyschosomatic symptoms, cause I've really been obsessing over this. The actual spots themselves are not painful, nor does pressing the area so that the white fluid come out hurt.
So--long story over--do I just ignore this, or go back to the doctor? Is it possible she just didn't look well enough? How would I know if this was really herpes? Wouldn't I have noticed having a breakout in the first week after contacting it? It's been months since I've been sexually active. Is it possible that my Bartholin glands are just irritated?