I am on my period, and this is day 5. I always have extremely heavy periods and this one is no different. I know you aren't supposed to, but I have to use a pad and a tampon at the same time because if I don't I literally bleed all over my pants, regardless of how heavy the pad or tampon is. Anyway, since it is getting closer to my period ending I have been slacking and haven't been changing my pad as often - I change the tampon but only change the pad twice a day or so, and I keep it on when I go to bed. I have had no problems at all until today when I had to urinate and when I wiped I noticed the left side of my inner labia was extremely sore on the surface. My whole vagina is not sore, just this one area on the left side and it looks puffy, red, and inflamed. That area is also bleeding a little bit because when I wiped with a baby wipe I noticed it burned a little bit so I held it on there for a sec and there is a little blood spot from that area of skin. There are no bumps, sores, or anything that would suggest herpes, and I have also not been sexually active with anyone other than my spouse for eight years. I am freaking out since I have been looking on the internet it does kind of sound like herpes but I do not, and have never, had any sores and it certainly does not look like sores or the blisters that herpes looks like. It just looks like a little red inflamed area and it hurts really badly. Today my flow is light enough that I can just use a tampon, so I stopped wearing pads but since this only happened today I don't notice a difference, yet and it still hurts when I wipe. I am just really scared that it is herpes or something. My spouse hasn't had any cold sores, and the last time he performed oral sex on me was over six months ago, could that result in herpes (I have had no problems like this EVER before, certainly not in the past six months) or is this probably just an inflammation from my pad use? I have changed my pads every few hours every day for five days but I have not given myself a break and have had a tampon and a pad on every second of every day for the past five days. I am scheduling an appointment with my doctor just in case but I am just really worried and need some help.