Boyfriend and I have been together for 2 years . I had my first genital hsv1 outbreak in July confirmed by swab test ... But myself and my boyfriend's blood test came back negative . Please help . I don't understand where this came from .. I was told if this was something that was living dormant in my body or his , the blood work would come back positive .. he swears he's never cheated on me and I have no reason not to trust him ..
It can be frustratingly difficult to be certain about the source of HSV
Have you been in contact with anyone with a coldsore on their lip?
No , but shortly after my genital outbreak my boyfriend got a cold sore on his lip along with the initial outbreak symptoms and my lips felt tingly but no sores ever popped up .. But he said he remembers having weird blisters on his tonsils a few years back and things on his lips as well ... I made him get std tested when we first met 2 years ago but he tested negative for hsv1&2 at that point .... I guess my question is could the blood work be wrong and give a false negative for hsv1 ? ... I've been so proactive in making every partner I've ever had get tested first, this is so devastating for me ..
Regarding the tests my impression is that the positive swab test can be trusted absolutely.
The blood tests not so much. The IGG tests take 3-6 months after exposure before they show as positive.
The IGM tests cant tell the difference between HSV1 and HSV2 and are pretty unreliable anyway.
The results can be difficult to interprete too as judged by the number of threads on here asking for advice.
I do get the impression that maybe your boyfriends coldsore and your genital outbreak may be part of the same first infection. But its difficult to be certain.