Tryingtostayzen

PS I was swabbed about four days after the bumps appeared. Maybe more. The one he swabbed was open already, it looked like a sore. He also seemed to swab the general area. I did not get swabbed again during 2nd outbreak.

Thanks for the quick responses. You guys are great. I have been exposed to herpes before this encounter in july. I had a friend and lover who recently shared with me that he is hsv2 positive. We had unprotected sex three times in 2012. He manages his very infrequent OBs with episodic therapy. I assumed that the virus would not take so long to cause symptoms if I had been exposed 2 years ago.. I live in Montréal. Not sure which of those tests is readily available. Sounds like i need To follow up on this.

Hi again. I followed up with the guy I had the unprotected sex with. He claims he is negative according to the bloodtest. I'm so confused and frustrated. Does this mean I'm negative? What were all those symptoms? This doesn't make sense...

I was already in therapy when I was diagnosed, but since this summer have been talking about herpes a lot, obviously. I was surprised how difficult it is to really talk about about this virus and how it makes me feel-even in the safe space of my therapist's office. With her I can't rely on funny jokes or humour about herpes which I've been doing a lot with friends. With her I can begin to let go and cry a bit. I think it's great to get some help whenever you need it.

Thanks to all for your answers. I really appreciate it. I will definitely do a blood test in a couple of months to see if I have any antibodies. I had herpes on my hand when I was a baby and I had another herpetic whitlow about ten years ago that I believe I caught from my friend who has cold sores so I probably have HSV1 antibodies already… What I need to know is whether I have antibodies to HSV2 which is what I assume I had on my nether-regions in July. This is an assumption, of course, as I could have caught it from oral sex, but wouldn't my outbreak have been less severe since I have already been exposed to HSV1? I'm so confused. I also have a question about one of the responses above: @Scared4this you write that it is uncommon to acquire the virus from a one-time event. Is this true? Obviously the guy I was with must have been shedding if he did indeed give it to me, but I was not aware that it is uncommon to get herpes from a one-night stand?

Hello, I experienced a rash on my buttocks after having unprotected sex with someone in July. When the bumps started to look like blisters and sores, I knew it was herpes and went to a clinic to see a doc. The doc took one look at my lesions and told me it was genital herpes. He did a swab and gave me an Rx for Valtrex. He was quite cold and didn't even sit down when he told me the news. He told me it was not a big deal. Needless to say, it felt and still feels like a big, big deal. My symptoms evolved and went through the classic stages of genital herpes I read about online: bumps, sores, crusts… I also had fatigue, muscle pain and swollen lymph nodes in my groin. When most of the crusts had fallen off, I got a whole new crop of sores that looked like red bumps. I spoke to a pharmacist who told me I was most likely having a second outbreak and I should take 5 days of Valtrex, which I did. This seemed to contain the OB and the bumps never really turned into sores, they just got less and less red and then went away. All in all, the entire process from the first symptom to the area looking almost back to normal took about 6 weeks. Sounds like a typical primary outbreak. Except that when I went to see my family doctor to get the results of the swab (she's at the same clinic as the urgent care doc who diagnosed me), she told me it was negative. She also told me that herpes is diagnosed by looking at it and that swabs often come back negative. There's no doubt that my symptoms looked and felt like Herpes. I understand swabs are unreliable but am still frustrated because I would like some closure or confirmation that my life has indeed changed. Does that make sense? Have any of you gone through this? Would a blood test confirm it? I've heard those are not completely reliable as well. Should I just accept I have Herpes and move on (whatever that means…. another thread.) By the way, I never saw the man I had the unprotected sex again. I informed him that I was having a herpes outbreak and and he replied that he has never had an outbreak or symptoms. I explained that many cases of H are asymptomatic, etc. He said he went for a blood test but never got in touch with me to let me know what the result was. Thanks in advance for you words of advice and experience.