Hi, I recently became a phone patient of yours and sent in my Western Blot sample last Friday. I have a question regarding the likelihood that my current test results were in fact a false positive.
To recap my story: I had protected vaginal sex with a stripper, while wearing boxers as well, for 5-10 minutes. Within 48 hours I experienced a tingling sensation at the base of my penis, followed by bilateral inguinal ache and burning that was so severe it would wake me up at night. I also had cold sweats at night and generally felt exhausted and weak, though that may have just been from not sleeping. I never really saw any lesions to speak of, and I looked really hard. Those symptoms faded away after a couple of weeks or so.
I tested at 4 wks and at around 10-11 wks, both came back negative. It is now 6-7 months since that encounter and I decided to test again, without any symptoms at all since that time that I know of, and came back negative for HSV1, positive for HSV2 at 1.25. I recognize that this may be a false positive. However, you have stated in other threads that the negative HSV1 makes it a little more likely that the result is correct. So my question is: what is my risk? Is it still about 85% likely to be a false positive, or are my odds worse than that?
A few days after my positive results I started have bilateral burning sensations again, quite severe, for a couple of days, a very mild rash in my left groin fold, but it doesn't look like anything herpetic that I've ever seen. I'm open to the possibility that it's anxiety, but that pain was not subtle. The timing however, would seem to be telling.
I want to begin sexual relations with my wife again, but I'm scared to death that I'll infect her, and I don't know if I could live with myself if that happened. I'm really anxious and depressed about this whole affair, and any guidance/advice you could provide would be extremely appreciated. I hope that WB comes through soon.