Question:
This looks like a long post, but I really need help, so I am listing everything that might be relevant. I started sleeping with a girl (who is now my girlfriend) in October. We were stupid to never wear condoms, even though we were only sleeping with each other from then on. In December I was at my doctor for other reasons when we started talking about my unprotected sexual activity. She told me how prevalent herpes was, and so i got a blood test for herpes. I had never had an outbreak of any kind in my entire life, but wanted to be sure. She called me later and said I'm a lucky boy and that it was negative. From that day on, my girlfriend and I have always worn condoms (except with oral sex.) This is where it gets bad, please keep reading. A week into February, I started getting a tender feeling on my foreskin. I'm not circumcised so I thought it was just the foreskin being "roughed up" from some recent sexual activity. Two days later, I woke up and the area was now definitely defined. About the size of a quarter but wider, and it was yellowish and had a layer of ooze. I would say puss but it was NOT raised like a boil or a wart. It was flat. It didn't really hurt unless I really messed with it. It didn't really itch or burn or anything, it just looked bad. I saw a dermatologist that day, and right away told him I was tested negative for herpes in December. He looked at the sore and said it looked either like Staph infection or syphalis. He sent me to an STD state clinic that had a test for syphalis. So I told them everything, and they tested me negative for syphalis. I went to another dermatologist and she said it may be herpes, but she didn't know. I told her about the negative blood test and she just gave me some prescription cream and said it looked like its healing. That was all she was concerned with, that it looked like it was getting better. So today I had my 2 week follow up. The area looks 90% healed but I can definitely still see the area where it was because it is redder than the rest of my penis. As soon as the doc saw it, she said "Well it's gone. Bye." she didn't know what it ever was and was just happy it was gone. Well, I did some research and am very disturbed now about my negative herpes test. I had been having unprotected sex with my girlfriend up until the day I got this blood herpes test. She has never had any signs of herpes but now I read that she could still have given it to me. What I am worried about seems unlikely to have happened: She would have had to have herpes, we had sex for 3 months, and I only got her herpes towards the end of those three months, and then my out break didn't occur for a month and a half? This would mean my test was a false negative. All of that seems unlikely, but when I think about it, it makes sense, because if that sore wasn't herpes, what the hell was it? I don't know what to do. My girlfriend and I have since split up for other reasons and I don't have contact with her. So basically I can wait for 2 months to get tested again by blood (to know for sure since my antibodies would be present by then) but what do I do in the meantime? They can't take a culture because the sore is now gone and they only took the culture to test for syphalis at the time my sore was present. I feel close to suicidal, I can't take it. I would never kill myself because that would hurt too many in my life, but what I'm saying is this worry is so bad that I don't want to be awke, or alive, or any of that. I don't know what to do. please offer input

Answer:
ok you need to go to a general doctor or something else... cause derms just dont do it for me. thats like me going to my dentist, and saying oh my nose hurts can u check it out? im sure there good at what they do, and since its the skin and all that but i would get it checked out (if u have that outbreak again) at a regular general doctor.

also- paragraphs.

then yes it is possible you could have had a false neg. test. and had the virus until the outbreak in feb. false negs are actually very common. and you didnt protect yourself from any oral contact. so if your girl had it orally, she spread it to you genitaly either before/after your test.. did she ever get any bumps on her lips, or alot of really nasty canker sores?

the spot- ok have you ever had a canker sore? did the spot look somthing like that, with the redness on the outside, but the entire spot itself really has a white layer ---- also "weeping" will produce a ozzing effect.

staph infections to my knowledge cause bumps, that look like boils.

in the meantime.. dont have sex, you dont know if you have it and you dont want to go spredding it around....
and like ive told other people, having herpes is not the end of the world.
sure it sucks when you have the outbreak, but the rest of the time your the same person you were before the virus. AND for sex> just be smart, thats means condoms, and talk to your partner you have to let them know u have it.

Answer:
theres a good chance he did have it and didnt know.....would have been wise to have her tested just in case when you did but anyway................. the reason it is very possible to actually have had a true negative test result is because at the time you had not caught it from her and after the test is when you would have caught it, or you could have just been infected around the time of the test, and in that case the antibodies woul not have been there yet to be detected, or a large enough amount of them. It is more likely though that at the time you had NOT contracted it from her and after you were tested then you got it. People can be together for years, one of them never knowing they have it, and can have sex for years without spreading it because during asymptomatic shedding you are only contagious a certain percentage of the time, and in your case, if she does in fact have it, then she happened to not be contagious all of the previous times you had sex and then all it would take is one unlucky time and then you'd have it. And remember that even though you started using condoms after your test, condoms do not protect you from herpes unless they cover the affected area of a person and even then they never protect you 100% from herpes. Also, you could have gotten it from her mouth if she had it orally......from unprotected oral sex.

Either way, I would try and find a way to contact her and ask her to get tested because she very well could have it and have no idea she does.

Your life is not over, but it definitely seems like it is when you get this, for me anyway.....dont worry until you have to, try and relax. Definitely get a blood test in a few weeks and in the mean time try and contact her to see if she does have it.