Have a new SO. Had lots and lots of sex over 3 day period (12 times), both protected and un.
End of day 3, take a shower, walk out and see blister / pimple / small boil on the side of the shaft of my penis. I freaked.
It was about the size of a tic-tac, maybe a little smaller. I didn't notice if it was filled with anything (certainly not pus). Over the next couple hours it went down completely and became only red broken skin. Now (two days later), it is hardly a little scab, and will probably be gone by tomorrow...

I have looked up as much info as possible on herpes, and my "blister" was never a "weeping sore", it wasn't particularly painful (only when it rubbed against my clothes), and it's only lasted 2 days.

Is it possible to get a friction blister on your penis (i have one on my knee from all the sex)? Could it be a skin infection? How freaked should I be?

Don't drive yourself crazy speculating what it might be.  Go get it checked out immediately.  Just because it goes away doesn't mean you haven't contracted something.  Be safe and find out for sure.  NOW!!!  Sedagive.

Your best bet is to go have it examine. It hard to say if its a friction blister or something else.

but, I am not a doctor, go and see one.

It sounds like you got a blister from too much sex!!!

Philadelphia's Tattooed Escort...

Seems too soon for a herpes breakout.  Folliculitis maybe the case, but it must be at the root of hair shaft.  Do you wear tight underwear? Like everyone else said, it is better to check it out, though there isn't pretty much anything you can do except to treat it symptomatically.  Zovirax is the antiviral cream you can use to contain the sore.  Over the years, I've noticed that salicylic derivative to burn the sore off is a good way to contain the sore, though this treatment seems to yield variable results among immuno-compromised patients.  You can take Vit-B complex to maintain your immune system.

On the note, you need to talk to your SO about this.  If it is folliculitis, personal hygene is the way to go.  If it's herpes, you both need the treatment.  If it some other STD, your SO and you must definitely be treated together.  You don't wanna be giving back and forth.  

Hope this helps.

My understanding is if your partner has Herpes, even if you do use condom, it would be a matter of time before you both will be infected.  Am I wrong?

Dear Anonymouse,

You seems to be knowledgeable about Herpes, here is a question for you:

I have read that even condom cannot guarantee protection against Herpes. Also, without an outbreak, the condition can be transmitted.  Based on these, one can conclude that if one's sexual partner has Herpes, it is only a matter of time before they both become afflicted.

Furthermore, based on the above hypotheses, one can conclude that if we see a wide variety of women, again, it would be a matter of time before we all get Herpes, even if we use condom.  

So, should we refrain from these activities? I have had friends who have been very active, and have never had any STDs.  I have never had any STDs, but then I am EXTREMELY cautious.

Thanks ...

Congratulations.  Now get back in there! ;^)

You are right.  Herpers and HPV which causes warts are easily transmitted even with a condom.  I am sorry to be the bearer of a bad news, but more sexual encouters you have; there will be more chance of ending up with STD. It is a simple statistics.  But statistically, there is a limit to the number of sexual encounters you can have, so there would be limit to the percentageof people who is going to end up with genital herpes.  (on the note, 99% of the population already has some type of herpes.  Something to think about, isn't it?)

You are right that even without a breakout, it is possible to transmit.  How to completely protect yourself from STD?  A full body condom, I guess.  And if your partner has it, it is very very good chance that you will end up with one.  And it is very difficult to diagnose people who are infected with herpes or HPV.  ELISA is an antibody testing, but the result is not 100%.  It is 90% positive, and 60% negative.  

I believe that if you have no episode of herpes breakout for ten years, you are in the clear.  However there has been a report of transmission of HPV after ten years of non-episode of wart breakout.  So I maybe too optimistic.  

A question of whether you should refrain from these activities must only be answered by you based on these facts.  But how can you refrain from your own instinct to procreate?  The best situation would be that you find a virgin who is gonna satisfy your every desire to madly fall in love with.  Could there be such a thing?  Hmmmmm.  Could any ladies help answer this one?

...but if 99% of the entire population already has sometype of herpes, one can conclude that eventually everyone will have contracted some type of STD.  If that's the case, what's to prevents us from thinking "fuck everybody, I'm just gonna fuck everybody".

If we can't keep it from happening... why try?

I thought I mentioned that there is a limit to percentage of people who would get STD per statistics.  How can a statistics from one disease be the representative of all STD?  That's a huge leap of interpretation.

I have also suggested a few ways to keep it from happening. I am not going to say "Don't worry about getting STD and have fun."  I was hoping that you guys get the message that there is always a risk involved with this type of activity.  More promiscuous you are, more chance you will end up with STD.  That's a simple fact.  Luckily, condoms can provide an adequate protective barrier for MOST, not all, STD.  

I am sorry if I sound a little annoyed.  I just see the ethical problem in reading your post.  You will eventually die of old age, are you gonna fuck everyone?

I have had herpes since 1979, and I have occasional outbreaks (1-2 times a year). I was married for 18 of those, and never passed it to my wife.

I have been fairly active sexually since my marriage, and it seems that most of the women I have met have it also.

Staying healthy, knowing your body, and knowing when to say "not tonight dear" are essential.

Blister gone completely. It lasted a total of 4 days, 2 of which it was just a scab...

I haven't gotten it checked out yet, but I am fairly certain now that it wasn't herpes after all....

Has anyone out there ever gotten a friction blister on their penis? I read an article about a guy who got one from masturbating too much... I figure with all the bacteria, all the friction, the broken skin (she may have bit me there a few times...)... Plus I never had any pus, no "weeping sores" (no sore at all for that matter)...

The blister appeared almost instantly, and "popped" as soon as I noticed it (this is about 5 hours after last bout of sex), and healed over like a blister would, and now it's gone...

I know only a doctor can tell me it's not herpes, but from all that I have read and seen about herpes, the only similarity was the blister part...

Herpes sufferers out there, any insight? Am I just in complete denial?

...herpes are sexually transmitted.  Chicken Pox is a type of the herpes virus.  Most all kids have had it.  I'm guessing there are others too.

I agree there is an ethical problem with my comment.  I guess the point I was trying to make is that for me, an STD is an STD.  No matter herpes or HIV... it's something I don't want.  With your comment about 99% of the population has some type of herpes, I interepreted your meaning to be herpes is no big deal.  Well for me, any STD is real big deal and if more people thought like that, maybe more hobbyists and providers would take more precautions in thier activites.  

Yes the more promiscuous you are, the greater your chances of contracting something... but statistics can be arranged to say anything one wants them to say.  I thought the 99% quote was rather inaccurate.  I don't have herpes... and I think there are more than 1% who are with me.

Though things vary across the board, your intial herpes breakout generally leaves you with flu-like symptoms and a VERY swollen groin.  Your sore looks a lot like my "ground zero" infection point when I got herpes, so if this just happened, you need to wait a spell to see if is the real deal.

It does not sound like an infection -- more like some sort of friction thing or infected hair follicle.

Did you catch Herpes while using condoms?

Are there other people out there who have caught Herpes while using condom?

Thanks ...

I'm not a doctor & have no medical training, but it's my understanding that there are different types of herpes & with at least some the virus is tranmitted through the pores of the skin, so a condom will not offer protection from the full range of the different stains.

I didn't have unprotected bareback intercourse, but there was a lot of sex play and she did play with my uncovered crank right after playing with herself.  This was not sex I paid for, by the way...

Stick with condoms, even for blow jobs and hand jobs, and you probably are going to reduce your risk of catching anything to pratically zero.  Or, play the odds -- I do and have lost, more than once (in addition to herpes I mentioned above, I contracted a non-specific UTI from a bbbj from an escort).  It seems that many people here play the odds and win, though I suspect a lot of guys wouldn't know a STD if it hit them upside the head.

And get this.  DNA virus like herpes and HPV are taught to cause cancer by tying up the p36 and other gateway/proto-oncogene. And there are more I can show you to scare you straight.  Now can you handle the truth?  

So should you care?  Yeah.  But we gotta procreate.  This is becoming a Shakespearean question.  The truth and the possibility seem far worse than you think.