Can I trust my results?

I seem to have a strange case going on here.  The first week of May this year, I was in the shower and I noticed a slightly painful TINY bump on the inside of my outer labia.  It felt and looked like a pimple so I scratched and squeezed it and basically annoyed the hell out of it until it was "open".  The next day, it was a couple millimeters wide with a white covering on it, very similar to a canker sore.  I got into planned parenthood ASAP, got swabbed and blood tested.

The first culture I had done was unfortunately not within the 48 hour window, but it was still definitely there with no healing or scabbing.  When I was swabbed, there was minimal pain.  She immediately visually diagnosed it as herpes and gave me a hug, telling me it would all be OK.

The culture and the blood test both came back negative.

About a month later, I had a similar experience, poked and prodded it, and luckily got in for a swabbing within 24 hours.  And another blood test.  These both came back negative.

At around 13 1/2 weeks, I had another blood test, which also came back negative.  I also had my boyfriend of a year and a half get a blood test (since he had never had any symptoms), which came back negative.  He is the first and only person I have done anything sexual with.

So, here are the weird things that I don't understand.  While it did resemble herpes symptoms, I have had these bumps show up in the past, and when I don't irritate them, they go away on their own.  They show up on the inside of my labia majora, in an area that has what looks like pores and very fine hairs.  Is it possible that these are just irritated pores/follicles?  I have even used tweezers to pull a tiny, fine hair out of one!  Also, once they were swabbed, they healed almost overnight, so is this possibly a yeast problem?  I have NEVER seen any sort of blister, just a tiny pimple looking thing.

My boyfriend and I have been together faithfully for over a year and a half and with 2 negative cultures and 3 negative blood tests for me and a negative blood test for him, I am so confused and upset.  Here are my questions:

1.  I can understand the first culture being a false negative because it was a few days after it had shown up.  But, the second culture a month later was taken within 24 hours.  Can I trust this?

2.  My most recent blood test was at about 13 weeks out since I noticed the symptoms.  I honestly have no idea when to put an "exposure" date since my boyfriend and I have been having sex consistently for over a year and a half, so it's very possible and probable that the  "exposure" date was more than 13 weeks.  Can I trust this third negative blood test?

3.  My boyfriend also had a negative blood test the same day I got my 3rd negative blood test.  I am sure they tested for herpes because I personally spoke with his doctor about my weird case.  They initially weren't going to test his blood because he had never had any physical symptoms, but when I told them what was going on with me, they tested it.  Like I said, it was negative.

I never experienced any of the classic symptoms, like the flu symptoms or swollen lymph nodes.  I also only ever had one bump at a time and never in the same place or side of my labia.  I also thought it was weird the "sores" didn't hurt when swabbed and healed within nearly 24 hours after being scraped and swabbed at the clinic.  I had all of my testing done with the same doctor at planned parenthood, and she was baffled by what was happening to me.  I know there are all kinds of false negatives out there, but the chance of 6 false negatives seems ridiculous.  Should I have another blood done at 6 months to ease my mind or should I save my money and tell my brain to shut up?

Thanks so much for your help in advance.  The internet is a very scary place when you think you have been infected with something!

[gracefromHHP]

odds are this isn't herpes going on. both of you testing negative on the blood tests means you didn't have it before you met him and didn't recently contract it from him.

next time you have symptoms, don't pick at them!  Be seen and follow up on them to try to get a better idea of what is going on.   were they also testing you for vaginal yeast and bacterial infections when you were seen for your lesion cultures?

grace

[jmtmcr49]

Thanks Grace!  I was hoping it would be you who answered!

During the third blood test I did ask to be tested for a yeast infection and that also came back negative.

It would seem that after 5 negatives for me, and a 6th negative test (from his) that I could put this behind me, but I just worry about all those false negatives out there.  I seem to be able to come up with an excuse for every negative test.  

The first culture wasn't taken within 48 hours, although there wasn't any scabbing so it was still accessible.  The second culture was taken within 24 hours but I've read that subsequent "outbreaks" carry less virus, so maybe that's why it was negative.  The second time I went in it was about a month after the first, so I would assume it would still be possible to get a good sample?

My first 2 bloods could have been negative because they were taken too early, but the negative blood after 13 weeks should be a good sign right?  Not to mention the boyfriends negative blood test with no visible symptoms.

I blame myself for scouring the internet for hours and hours, but I just kept seeing "FALSE NEGATIVE" info everywhere!  No one seems to agree on whether the culture or the blood was more accurate, but I can't imagine 2 cultures would BOTH be false negatives and 3 (or 4 from the bf) blood tests would also be false too?

I can't possible have beat all those odds out there to get 5 or 6 false negatives!  Right?

[jmtmcr49]

Sorry, one more question!

Is the reason it possibly took on a canker sore like appearance because it was in a moist environment?  The bump was always very small and slightly firm, just like a pimple or tiny ingrown hair.  Since I picked at it, could it be just like picking at a blemish on your face, only since it was not exposed to air it looked like a canker sore in your mouth?

I do shave and when I shave it ALL comes off, so I don't know if I am possibly agitating things down there.  Like I said before, I just recently removed a very tiny fine hair from a very small red spot on the inside of my outer labia, and the next day the spot was gone.  I'm wondering if this is what happened earlier, only I didn't treat things quite as gently and ended up giving myself a needless scare...

[gracefromHHP]

turn off the computer and stop allowing yourself to doubt your multiple tests. it's just not worth it - it's THAT low of a chance that this is herpes going on.  

[jmtmcr49]

Thanks for your input!  I'm sure you get this all the time.  As useful of a tool as the internet is...it'll convince you that have every malady under the sun!

Now the hard part is just figuring out what this actually is!  I'm sure the internet will scare me half to death before I can conclude it's nothing...

[Mistakeguy789]

Stop using the internet to be your doctor :-)  Use it to read funny websites like failblog or youtube cats playing and talking to each other.  Talk to the doctor about your issues and have them diagnoise you they are afterall there for that.  :-D