perraanonima writes:

What was the result of the culture?

Has he ever been tested?  If not, and lately, he would have no way of
knowing one way of the other.

There's no way to know at this point and you may never know. It might
be possible to narrow the possibilities though. Is it important?

Anyhow.... False positive cultures are rare. Blood test though, look
for antibodies which don't show up for weeks after an infection. So if
you were to get a blood test now which turned up negative, and your
culture is positive, you'd have a pretty good indication that your
infection is recent.
If your blood test comes back positive though, you will have wasted
your time, your money, and would not have learned anything.

Meanwhile, you might drag your boyfriend in to blood test him too.

Make sure it's one of the newest blood tests though. Older ones are
known to be inaccurate.  Western Blot is the gold standard but it's
expensive and not easy to get. Ask for HerpeSelect IgG test (Not IgM).
It's accurate, easy to get, and not as expensive.

Even after all this, it's possible to come up with a wrong verdict.
Keep that in mind.

M2

Have you heard that phrase: never judge a book by the cover. The same thing
goes with people and STDs. You can't look at somebody and tell if they have
an STD or not. In fact, many people have STDs and don't know it. I'm sure
you are probably realizing that by now.

I'm really glad that you are keeping in constant contact with your doctor.
That is the person that is supposed to be able to help you. When do you get
your test results back from the culture?

As for the boyfriend - how does he know that  he doesn't have STDs? Has he
been properly tested for everything? Maybe you can let him know that not
everything is included in the routine STD testing process. Here's a good
link to give him to help him get started with his research: www.yoshi2me.com

And what you read about  having no signs or symptoms is correct. 90% of
those that have genital herpes don't get signs or symptoms. They don't even
know that they have it. Herpes isn't included in the routine STD testing
process either.

Now it is possible that you could have carried the virus and not known it
but it's also possible that this new boy toy gave it to you. The only way to
tell if your infection is recent would be to have a positive herpes culture
and a negative herpes blood test. If that were the case then that would mean
that this infection is a first time infection and that you contracted it
most likely from your recent partner.

If you were to have a positive herpes culture result and a positive type
specific herpes blood test result then that would mean that your body has
had a chance to develop antibodies and that you could have contracted herpes
from any one of your past partners.

But seriously, I think deep down we can always tell what's going on because
who knows our body better than ourselves?

Hang in there,

Angela