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Hi Aunt Vadge,
About a week ago I was shaving down there. I don’t think I felt anything get cut, but I’ve noticed these slits — about four or five — and they sting when I touch them, but that’s it. I can’t tell if it’s from shaving or something else.
I was diagnosed with a yeast infection the other day (I get recurrent ones), and although I’ve heard yeast can cause slits and cuts, I’m scared it’s herpes. My last girlfriend had unprotected sex with someone who had herpes, and I only found out after we’d already had sex.
She said she got it taken care of. That was two years ago, and this is the first time I’ve noticed anything.
Yours,
Cut
Age 20, United States
Hi there Cut,
Let’s take the scary one first: this really doesn’t sound like herpes. Several small, stinging slits that turned up around the time you were shaving, in someone with recurrent yeast, fit two very ordinary causes — shaving and yeast — far better than herpes.
Herpes shows up as painful fluid-filled blisters that break into ulcers, usually with a tingling or burning warning beforehand, not as little stinging cuts. And while you do have a past exposure, two years with no symptoms at all makes a first herpes outbreak now very unlikely.
So the most probable story is razor nicks and micro-splits from shaving, possibly aggravated by the yeast infection you’ve just been diagnosed with, since yeast makes the skin fragile and prone to little fissures.
That said — and this is the one bit I’d push on — the only way to actually settle the herpes worry, given the known exposure, is to get checked rather than guess.
If you can, see a doctor or sexual health clinic while the cuts are present so they can look, and ask them to swab any active spot and discuss herpes blood testing; that’s how you get certainty rather than living with the fear.
For the recurrent yeast, it’s worth asking for a proper swab too, because recurrent infections sometimes involve a more stubborn or non-albicans strain that needs different treatment, and a doctor can set you up with a proper plan rather than repeating the same thing.
In the meantime, be gentle: pause shaving while the skin is broken (or switch to trimming), wash with plain water only, wear loose cotton, and let the splits heal. Most likely this is shaving plus yeast — but get swabbed to put the herpes question to bed for good.
Warmest regards,
Aunt Vadge
This is general information, not a substitute for personalised medical advice.
