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Stuck in limbo of not knowing whether I actually have herpes


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Hi everyone. First post here. 

I've been in a monogamous relationship with my GF for three months. A few days after the last time we slept together, I developed painful urination. The pain was limited to the last 1/2" or so of my urethra and the opening at the end of my penis is slightly redder than normal and very slightly inflamed but there is nothing there that I could call a sore of any kind. The pain is worse when drinking acidic drinks or alcohol. I have never had this symptom in my life and I'm in my 40's. 

A urologist performed a full battery of tests - special urine culture that has to go to a lab to test for dozens of relatively rare pathogens as well as the main things they look for, and blood work (though they didn't do a swab of the urethra). Everything came back negative except for the HSV IGM test which came back positive. Of course, I freaked out. 

I found out from researching later that the IGMs are not reliable and can be false positive frequently. My IGG for HSV1 and HSV2 were negative. 

My girlfriend freaked out too and had no knowledge of having any STDs nor has she ever had symptoms. So we got her tested too. She came back negative on IGM and positive on IGG for HSV1 (negative on IGG for HSV2). 

My urologist is saying the test results likely show that I didn't have HSV1 or 2 until very recently, and was recently infected by my partner, and she wants to re-test the IGG in 6 weeks to see if I have developed the long-term antibodies. Having to wait that long is unbearable. And my GF's doctor is claiming that her passing HSV1 on to me without her having any symptoms, and having it result in my genital symptoms, is possible but extremely unlikely. At the same time, even though I had no lesions, there is no other explanation for my painful urination and slight inflammation symptoms (which have cleared up about 90% now - no more pain after about 10 days.... just some slight residual inflammation). 

My urologist is providing no more answers right now. Is it possible my symptoms aren't HSV and is something else entirely? 

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It's a shame to be in limbo. I know because my igm was also positive and my igm indeterminate. So I spent weeks thinking that maybe I didn't have it.

 

 In your situation, there are a few possibilities (from my point of view): your girlfriend is igg hsv1 positive and you don't know where she is. If it's oral, it can be transmitted to you by oral sex; if it is genital it is unlikely to be transmitted genitally and without symptoms, but there is viral shedding which is not impossible.

 

 In fact, you may have recently acquired one of these forms and then your igm would be positive, but you wouldn't have had time to have igg antibodies yet. If they move to the positive lane then you will know you have been infected.

 

 As far as I know, some people may experience symptoms when they urinate. The igm might actually be a false positive, but if you show the igg boost when testing again, you'll know it's correct.

 

 Unfortunately, there's nothing to do but wait for the test results or you'll get more classic herpes symptoms.

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