Dear Dog-ter,
I get speed bumps from shooting meth. I was masturbating to videos the other night and I wondered, can the herpes from my dick get into my speed bumps?
Jerkoff

Dear Jerkoff,
Good question. Let me guess: you played with your dick, picked at your bumps, played with your dick, picked at your bumps.

You can relax. Yes, a person can infect other parts of their body besides their dick, BUT it is not likely if you have had herpes for a long time. The longer a person has herpes the harder it is to pass to other parts of their body. This was a big question for many years -- does herpes spread from one part of your body to another because you might have a cut, scrape or some other opening in your skin? Or, does it spread because some types of skin are easier to infect than others? Research tells us it is mainly the type of skin. For example, the skin around your crotch, mouth and eyes is easier to infect with herpes than the skin you have on your hands or arms. This is assuming that your immune system is strong. If your immune system is not strong the risk goes up.

Also, if you do have a herpes outbreak on your arm it is not likely to happen more than once. Genital and oral outbreaks are more likely to happen again. Remember that friction can cause an increase in herpes outbreaks, so use LOTS of lube when you jerk off.

How will crystal meth affect my herpes? Will I have more outbreaks?

Great question -- so great that even the very smart Dr. dick had no answer. I had to call two herpes experts. They also really liked this question. To my dismay, they told me that there are no specific studies about crystal meth and its effects on herpes. Bummer, but not too surprising. So, to address your question, we do the next best thing. In this case, like Dr. Doolittle, we “talk to the animals” -- mice and guinea pigs in par-ticular. There have been a couple of studies where mice and guinea pigs infected with herpes were given epinephrine (EPP-e-NEFF-rin). Epinephrine is the same thing as adrenaline (a-DREN-a-lin) -- the hormone that our bodies produce during our “fright, fight or flight” reactions to danger. Speed drugs make our bodies produce epinephrine, and also tend to make the user feel threatened. That’s why, when you shoot crystal, your heart rate speeds up, your muscle strength increases, and your lungs open up for faster and deeper breathing.

The mice and guinea pigs had more herpes outbreaks because of getting the epinephrine. We do not know if this would be true with humans, but there are studies to show that the use of alcohol and pot increased herpes outbreaks in humans. The same studies showed that the number of outbreaks went down when the person stopped using the drugs. I don’t know the details of the studies so I can’t comment more on this right now.

So what’s going on with your herpes outbreaks right now? Do you notice that they’re worse when you’re shooting crystal? (What about you other readers?) If your outbreaks are not too bad and you want to keep shooting crystal, then you will most likely do what we all do when an activity we like has some bad effects on our health. You weigh the good things against the bad things and then decide. Is the pain from the herpes outbreaks so bad that the pleasures you get from shooting crystal aren’t worth it? Unless the outbreaks are really bad, you can treat them like the manageable nuisance that they are.

Previous Question | Next Question