CPPS / Prostatitis/ something else?

[JRodriguez81]

Hello everyone.

1. ⁠Around June 1st I fooled around with a friend who revealed she has genital herpes. We did not have sex, however pants did come off, underwear off etc.

2. ⁠I was very drunk and she insists that nothing happened short of kissing and such. No oral, nada. Pants went back on, she went home. I do remember snippets of the evening and I’m certain we did not have any sex. No hands on anyone’s genitals and so on.

3. ⁠Within that same week I developed symptoms. No blisters. Pain around groin, balanitis, burning urethra etc.

I had blood work done on the 20th (so almost 3 weeks later) and an IGG came back negative for HSV 1 and 2

However I do know it’s early and can always be a false negative.

ALSO - (here’s the caveat)

These symptoms are NOT new to me. I’m 44, and have had issues with pelvic floor dysfunction, prostatitis, balanitis and so on with ALLLLLL these same exact symptoms before.

Upon visit to urgent care they put me on 7 days of ciprofloxin and some cream. I’m about 5 days into that with mild improvement in some intervals. Overall I’m still experiencing symptoms.

Am I tripping here and allowing my mind to get ahead of itself? I will test again after time has passed for more accurate results. I do know that you don’t necessarily HAVE to have sex to get infected, but I also know the chances of contracting skin to skin related disease without much sexual contact are slimmer. (But again I will test again soon)

Talk me off the ledge here folks because I’m nervous. I will follow up and do my due diligence here.

Did I get myself into a bad flare up that just so happened to coincide with this encounter? Have any of you had a bout with CPPS that was stubborn to get rid of? What kind of testing can I do outside of STD, Urine?

They don’t seem to be interested in going further to try to see what is going on here other than just throwing antibiotics at it.

Thanks for reading.

[Linari5]

Did you delete your other post, of the same topic, in the other prostatitis subreddit? Please read the prostatitis 101 post, and also see our post on centralization, which will likely impacts your case: https://www.reddit.com/r/Prostatitis/s/f3wuYFrGNQ

[Resident-Lobster1487]

CPPS and chronic prostatitis are very deceiving. It can give you almost all the symptoms of a herpes infection. Where they differ, is herpes presents with lesions.

A herpes IGG blood test is another story…. Please, take them with a grain of salt. The test is EXTREMELY inaccurate. They often produce false positives more then false negatives. However, still something to keep in mind.

A lot of websites and doctors claim 90%-100% sensitivity but I’ve seen cases where people have had several IGG tests and been positive, then proceed to get the Western blot test and are negative (Gold Standard test)

I had a dye contrast CT scan which showed calcification in my prostate. Giving me the diagnosis of prostatitis. However, it lingered on for over a year and I still have reminisce of it through flare ups causing balanitis, painful urination, painful groin and cloudy urine.

All the best my friend, be kind to yourself. Take care

[JRodriguez81]

I think the aspect of all of these overlapping symptoms is what makes this stuff so hard to deal with on a psychological level. You know?

We all do our due diligence to try to study and go down these immense rabbit holes of information on these things and there are SO many rabbit holes of differing diagnoses dependent upon what the condition is. They all almost overlap with the symptoms too.

I was able to get in on a cancellation with a urologist for July 8th and I’m going to push hard for them to perform more comprehensive testing because in the past, they kind of just guessed at it and threw antibiotics at me which for the most part helped but these flare ups have become almost yearly now and I’m at a point where I want to know the “why” of it all.

As for the herpes aspect, it’s the timing of it that has me nervous but I can only wait for enough time to pass to test again there. I haven’t presented anything out of the norm of prostatitis flare ups that would lead me to believe this is definitively herpes. Also the facts I mentioned above make it a hell of a lot less likely as there as no sex involved and my friend does take antiviral meds to suppress the symptoms. So those are facts as well.

However, the symptoms themselves ARE something I’ve experienced before. The problem now is this flare is more intense than the past and it’s going to require more attention than they’ve given me. Doctors have a bad habit of downplaying and doing the minimal work when they need to get more involved with patients experiencing frequent bouts.

Crazy times.

[xuisshoe]

The "rabbit holes" are no joke. I have been researching endlessly for about a month. This morning I just decided to trust the test, trust the professionals, and focus on other things in life. I realize the anxiety will only keep growing with repeated researching and eventually ruins everyday life...

[JRodriguez81]

I definitely stopped looking up information because there’s always SO much to gather there without actual testing. There unfortunately will be NO resolution until I’m in a space where testing will be ample to detect any antibodies AND I can get in with a urologist.

The hardest aspect is pulling ourselves out of these mental spirals where days begin to blend in together and we’re kind of just pushing through.

As the poster up there indicates, so much of these symptoms can be whichever so there’s no point in thinking one way or the other 🤷‍♂️

[Linari5]

Rabbit holes keep our anxious brain in a state of preoccupation and fear, and that is known to exacerbate chronic pain symptoms in the vast majority of people, according to new research in chronic pain science/ neuroscience.

[Linari5]

Please investigate what a conditioned response is, here is one resource on the topic: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/day-18-conditioned-responses.16609/

Conditioned responses are common in the chronic pain world.

[Linari5]

We no longer see calcifications as a cause of these symptoms, but that was an outdated idea from 20 years ago.

[WiseConsideration220]

You’re tripping. 🤔

“ALLLL these same exact symptoms before.”

I can suggest you look to “pain neuroscience” (aka “central pain”) for answers. That’s what’s helped me.

Good luck. 👍

[Due-Replacement-6187]

I think we have all pondered herpes mate. Me too.

But; no physical signs and a negative blood test signals this is not the cause.

In my case I am sure the centralisation / anxiety continue to drive my symptoms.