lab test all negative, but painful lesions

[worriedguy330]

I had unprotected sex on 7/24. On 7/28 I started to get some sores on my penis. By 7/29 I was freaking out. First thing Monday morning (7/30) I had a full lab test. All test came back negative (Wed, 8/1). The lesions are somewhat painful, or maybe just more uncomfortable. It burns a little while urinating. I'm trying to get into the doctor, but nothing until Monday (8/6). I'm almost positive it's herpes, but I'm confused on the negative test. I read on-line that the blood test are pretty reliable. Could it be something else?

[gracefromHHP]

it happens sometimes. if you have a 3rd one in less than a month after this one heals, be seen to make sure that it's indeed a herpes issue and not something else.

[worriedguy330]

This last outbreak seemed to take forever to end. Now immediately I'm having another one. I don't even think the other one was completely gone. Is that normal?  

[gracefromHHP]

correct - ob's and shedding don't correlate. you can have no obvious ob's and shed the same amount as someone who has 10 ob's a year.   the virus sheds about the same for everyone.

your diet really doesn't matter much and neither does your stress levels.  Some people do have triggers but most don't.  ob's happen whether you are eating terrific and laying around in the hammock reading a book all week and about as chill as a person can get or if you are living out of drive thru's and working 14 hour days.  it's actually as much about your gene's as to how often you will get recurrences as anything.

don't mess with your valtrex dose and take a dose that we know isn't effective. stay on the 500mg dose daily.  

[worriedguy330]

Ya....I saw your conversation with another member talking about diet not really mattering. I've read so much about what to eat and not to eat to keep the virus dormant. Does outbreaks and shedding have little to do with one another? Or do you think diet has little to nothing to do with keeping the virus dormant? I travel for work a lot and decided to do 500mg while I'm home and 250mg while on the road. I haven't been gone that much in the last couple of weeks so I've been doing 500mg since then. I've had a lot going on and let my diet go (just by not paying attention). Guess what? I got my second outbreak. I've been under a little extra stress also though, but it still makes me wonder. I'm getting strict on my diet again.

As always...Thanks for your time Grace (and others)

worriedguy330

[gracefromHHP]

changing your eating habits isn't going to have any effect on herpes and viral shedding if you are trying to protect a partner.  

[worriedguy330]

I never got a second blood test after the swab test came back positive.

I was actually hoping to totally get off Valtrex one day, so I thought I would cut it to 250 first. I changed some eating habit and have led a healthier life in general hoping to never have another outbreak.

Thanks everyone's!
Worriedguy 330

Ps. It's funny, I'm not really worried anymore. I'm healthier then I've ever been and feel great!

[gracefromHHP]

we haven't studied washing before sex and we know from pcr swabbing studies that less virus is detected if you wash before swabbing but that said, the heat and friction of the sex act itself would just bring more virus to the skin so just washing off what is laying on the skin isn't likely to significantly lower risk to a partner.

why only 250mg of valtrex a day? that isn't adequate medication for daily suppressive therapy to reduce transmission to a partner. if you want to protect a partner, do it right!!

grace

[castello80]

Washing your genitals before sex hasn't been studied in regards to HSV-2 transmission, so it wouldn't hurt to continue to do this if you're that concerned. This is a little weird, but I remember reading a porn star say that after sex he washed his penis after every session, and he never contracted an STD. I believe that washing before sex must work to some degree since 70-95% of those in the porn industry have genital herpes. It would be helpful if there were studies on washing after/prior to sex, but that's probably close to the bottom of the list in regards to more relevant studies on herpes transmission.

[bamboozled86]

Read your post and I'm just curious. Did you ever get a confirmation of your hsv by a blood test? I'm assuming that your swabs is what came back positive but did you ever repeat a blood test and get positive igg results later?

[worriedguy330]

Sorry, never saw your last question until now. It was/is hsv2. I/we tracked down how this came to be. A sexual partner of mine had sex with a guy who had hsv2, knew it, but never said anything. Messed up if you ask me. I've been finding out that this is often the case. One partner knowing and not telling the other.

Grace....It does bring me to a new question though. I'm in a committed relationship now. I've only had hsv2 for about 6 months as of now and take about 250milagrams of valtrax daily. I would like to get off of it eventually, but I'm not ready right now. I have unprotected sex with my girlfriend. I actually wash my penis with soap and warm water before sex every time. She doesn't have herpes yet. Do you think this could help? The very term of "shedding" would make me think that doing this (washing penis) might help. Maybe cleaning off the shedding cells before they can shed? Do you think this has any benefit?
Thanks for all your help!
worriedguy330

[gracefromHHP]

was it hsv1 or hsv2?

[worriedguy330]

No luck....came back as herpes. ugh. A new life begins.

[worriedguy330]

I tried to reply earlier from my phone, so sorry if this gets double posted.

Thank you both for your replies.

I did get to a doctor yesterday and he did a swab test. Results should be in by Monday at latest. The girl who prompted this scare was test and everything came back negative. She "says" she has had one other partner in the past 6 months and she is pretty sure he was with no one else. I've had a couple of partners in the past 6 months, but mostly all protected sex. 2 others unprotected. I'll probably wait for test results before I start breaking the news to those other partners.

About a year ago I had an ex-girlfriend (from two years ago) contact me and ask if I had herpes. I got tested and it was negative. Now again this test is negative. You don't think that somehow my body gives a false negative....do you?

thanks!
worriedguy

[gracefromHHP]

unfortunately at this point, it's getting too late for a lesion culture to get better answers. as anderson1234 correctly pointed out - if this is a newly acquired infection, it's too early for the blood testing you had done to be of much help other than to give you your baseline herpes status to compare future tests to.

so what do you do  now?  if your lesions heal in the next week, no real reason to be seen. until you get seen next week it'll be too late for antivirals to be of any help and the false negative rate with a lesion culture is far too high.  repeat your herpes igg blood testing 3 months post encounter or should you get a return of symptoms, be seen within 48 hours of their appearance for a lesion culture and typing.

any chance of getting your partner to pursue a type specific herpes igg blood test and share their results with you?

grace

[anderson1234]

You should've had the lesions swabbed or looked at. Your blood test for herpes was too soon. You need to wait 12-16 weeks for the results to be fully reliable.

When you went to get the blood test done, did you speak to a doctor? Did you show your sores to him/her?