Question:
I accidentally slept with a friend of mine in May. In the days following, I had some serious itching down there. It went away for a few days, and then came back with burning pain - severe burning pain, it was bad enough to keep me out of work.

I went to the doctor about a week afterwards. I was afraid I had herpes, but she said she didn't think it was. I had a blood test; it came back negative.

A month later, I was still having burning pain. I went to another doctor, who didn't think it was herpes, either. I had another blood test at 6 weeks; it came back negative again.

At 12 weeks, I went to a third doctor. I was still having some burning and itching. Had another blood test, and that came back negative, too.

So, would those of you that are educated in this believe the results? I've never had any of the traditional herpes symptoms, but I know not everyone does. I've never had any sores or lesions, so I've never had a culture done.

As for what is actually wrong with me, I'll save all that stuff for another thread. I'm trying to understand the science behind the testing. All of the blood tests I've had were IgG tests for HSV-2. I know I've been exposed to HSV-1 earlier in life so I didn't bother having that blood test done.

Answer:
After you are exposed to herpes, your body will eventually develop antibodies that the tests can detect. However, how long it takes for the tests to detect the antibodies seems to be variable. For most people by 12 weeks the tests are more reliable, but there are cases where people have said it took 4-8 months for their tests to show up positive. The first test, if you were exposed to HSV2 for the first time a week before, you can pretty much ignore because no test has been reported to show up positive so quickly. At the 6 week time window a decent # will start to show up positive, but I wouldn't rely on a 6 week test. The 12 week test starts to make me wonder do you have herpes, but again, since there are cases where it takes longer, and since it sounds like you don't have an good alternate explanation for your symptoms, I'd retest and wait at least until 16 weeks, maybe a little longer, before feeling in the clear.

When you had sex, did you also engage in oral sex? Although not incredibly common, some people still get HSV1 genitally even though they also have it orally. You are right; if you know you are HSV1 positive a test for that won't help; the only thing a doc could do is try to take a culture (and cultures have high failure rates of working, and in your case if there are no actual lesions some docs may be reluctant to do so, but it is possible to culture a scraping of skin instead of an actual lesion).

Did the docs do all the other standard STD tests and bacterial cultures? Is there another explanation for you??? Burning pain and itching are pretty common with H, so it does seem hard to rule it out at this point, but maybe something else is off down there...

Answer:
I accidentally slept with a friend of mine in May. I had to giggle at that line as I have used it before. Good luck!

Answer:
Did the docs do all the other standard STD tests and bacterial cultures? Is there another explanation for you??? Burning pain and itching are pretty common with H, so it does seem hard to rule it out at this point, but maybe something else is off down there... Yep, tested negative for all the other STD's. My symptoms have been chronic for over 3 months now. Every now and then I've had a day where I was symptom free, but its been rare. Olive leaf seems to help the symptoms, lysine does not. I haven't been given any prescriptions. If its not herpes, I'm wondering if it could be systemic yeast, or an allergy, or something along those lines. I need to do a major detox, that's for sure.

I had to giggle at that line as I have used it before. Good luck! I explained my story in another thread, so I figured I wouldn't repeat the whole thing here, but wanted to point out my symptoms began the day after sleeping with a new partner.

Answer:
with or without participating in oral sex if the guy was infected with a genital infection of hsv1 you could contract it genitally as well. being that you have it orally already it is possible that your antibodies are trying to fight this off. just a thought.

if you are contending with a yeast infection you should be aware that it is something that naturally occurs in our digestive tract. It feeds off of carbs and sugars so to limit these items can be helpful as would taking probiotics and increasing your intake of foods that naturally contain iodine like kelp or if you're a sushi lover the seaweed wrap.

I find that the lysine helps only if I am taking more than 1500 mg. daily and I also take olive leaf, vitamin c w/bioflavanoids and siberian ginseng among other things. I also find that epsom salt baths are soothing for me for some reason. I soak at least once a day if I am having symptoms.

Answer:
I understand I could contract GHSV-1, but without sores/lesions it will be impossible to tell.

What I am asking is whether or not the blood tests I've had should be satisfactory to determine whether or not I am infected with HSV-2.

I was taking 2000 - 3000 mg lysine; that didn't help me at all.