positive culture

hello,

i was raped without protection on july 25th. i routinely get yeast infections after sex, and did this time as well; i scratched and had some self-inflicted lesions (also routine for me,) and even though i knew what they were from i went to get a swab done for peace of mind. to the surprise of both myself and my doctor, the swab returned positive. i had an igg and igm blood test done; igg was negative for hsv-1 & hsv-2, igm came back positive with a negative titer (is that what it's called?) and during a second testing of the same specimen returned negative with a negative titer.

i understand cultures have a high false-negative rate even during an outbreak, so i am confused as to how my culture came back positive when i was not even having an outbreak. if this is an accurate result, i must have been shedding the virus, but it still seems strange to me that some people test negative with present lesions while my miniscule amount of shed hsv was detected. also, my mother and father have hsv-2 and have very strong and consistent breakouts, while 17 days later i have not experienced anything (no lesions, fever, swollen lymph nodes, etc.)

do you think it is possible the culture was a clerical error or a false positive? i am not in denial and have since accepted my herpes and informed everyone in my life, but the phone call this morning about the igm results gave me a bit of hope. i have read a great amount regarding false igm positives, but have not heard much about false igm negatives. i am very confused and hurt and have no idea what to think.

i would greatly appreciate truthful yet sensitive insight! thank you so much for taking the time to read my posting.

[jacnothappy]

I had a similar experience with Herpes recently, and from what I can understand is that it is to early to tell anything.
Your body's immune system is fighting the virus. Sooo the levels are very low and if in fact you did catch HSV1 or 2 the levels may be off for a few months. The recommended wait time is 12 weeks for an accurate IgG blood test.
Waiting that long seriously *****! Its only been little under 4 weeks for me and as much advise as I can get there is not much anyone can say.

[gracefromHHP]

You had a + lesion culture so you are actively shedding the virus and indeed have genital herpes. Did they also type it to know if it's hsv1 or hsv2?  since your igg is still negative, odds are that this is a recently acquired herpes infection for you.

grace