Hey everyone. I had a risky encountour 8 weeks ago, right now im wating for test results.Today i noticed around the bottom of my penis where theres hair a red spot. Its not really a bump but red and itchy. It looks like its centered around a hair follucle.Like i said, no bump,scab or puss. Just red and itchy. Does this sound like symptoms of herpes at all. Thanks

If every single person who has herpes had exactly the same symptoms it would be soooooo easy to determine if it was herpes or not. The difficult fact is that herpes comes in so many forms and appearances and some people show no signs of it at all. What you have could be nothing what so ever to do with herpes or it could be.

I agree with Aubrey!

Thanks for the replies.Got my results in today, so far negative. I seriously doubt the virus would have shown itself within the 4 days since i had the test done. Out of curiosity, would anyone happen to know the time after infection that most people would show up positive on a test. I know its not conclusive untill 12-14 weeks, im just wondering when the majority would show antibodies or whatever the test looks for. thanks

Thanks for the replies.Got my results in today, so far negative. I seriously doubt the virus would have shown itself within the 4 days since i had the test done. Out of curiosity, would anyone happen to know the time after infection that most people would show up positive on a test. I know its not conclusive untill 12-14 weeks, im just wondering when the majority would show antibodies or whatever the test looks for. thanks


Is anyone going to answer this question? or is this forum just useless?
No one seems to answer a lot of the questions in this forum...

My understanding was that it could be as early as 6 weeks after exposure to the virus...however my understanding is also that a person can have physical symtoms before the 6 weeks and can be tested positive pending there are sores/blisters to culture....unless I'm mistaken? I'm fairly new to all this as well....I'm waiting for my test results to come back next week but if my symptoms are that of an std the Dr. suspects it's Herpes. :O(

I haven't read of any stats regarding when exactly a person would show up positive on a test. From all i've read on these boards about people's experiences, everybody seems to differ from each other. In general you aren't supposed to get a blood test too soon, so i suppose getting tested a second time at a later date is a good thing to do to be on the safe side, especially when you have no obvious symptoms and the virus is new to you and so you wouldn't have past experiences to go by.

I still think the swab test on any lesion etc is the quickest and best way. I had the tiniest bit of redness and after a swab test it came back positive. Even before the test i knew it had to be herpes due to the stinging type of itch and mine took 2 whole months to show up from the date i actually first contracted the virus. Prior to that i had no symptoms what so ever.

The best thing to do is sit tight and wait and don't go having sex with anybody, not even with a condom, until the virus has had enough time to establish itself so that any blood test comes back with the correct result. Best of luck :)

Worriedfemale..........I'm sure people answer questions to the best of their abilities. This virus is new to a lot of people and it's not wise to go giving unsound advice which may be misleading or may scare another unnecessarily.Some threads will get more answers, whereas other threads may get less answers. A lot of questions get asked repeatedly, so before posting people ought to be doing searches and looking at previous posts. It becomes difficult for members to be on here daily giving the same information. Some posters want virtual guarantees or want their questions answered in black and white, when with this virus that's not possible.

This board has helped me more than anything else and i would have been lost without it when i first got this virus, so in my opinion, no thread or post is considered useless. People simply need to be patient while waiting for responses.

When is the latest that the virus will show up on a blood test?12 weeks?Also, for you people that do have herpes,how long do the lessions/blisters usally last?Thanks everyone

The Latest????? Not sure if you mean that you think it somehow goes away after some certain amount of weeks but it doesn't...it's just that it takes quite a few weeks to show up after exposure but once it's there you have it in your blood forever and ever!:mad:

no, you misunderstand me. I mean, how many weeks after exposure can you rely on blood tests?How long of a window gap is there untill it shows up in blood

It should show up by...uuum...I think they say 12-14 weeks...but I've heard of people with obvious herpes symptoms that don't get a positive result for a long time and finally after months and months of testing finally come back positive. Also, I've heard that false negatives are about 20%...I believe that was the stat...so they are only about 80% accurate with false positives being almost unheard of. I believe that I wouldn't waste my time getting blood tested before 16 weeks after exposure or if you have a lesion and if you can get to the doctor soon enough, you may be able to have that swabbed.

Hi there,

I live in Canada and I'm not entirely sure if we do the same type of testing as the U.S. does, however none the less, I rec'd a phone call back from the hospital I went to here at home just this past Thursday morning. I had gone to walk-in Wednesday after work as I was concerned with some symptoms I was having. The walk-in Dr. did not do a visual exam and instead simply treated me for a UTI and gave a prescrip. for a topical cream for a "rash" I was experiencing (and currently still am). I was not comfy with the fact he did not visually look at the genital area to see this rash himself. The following morning (Thursday morning) I went into one of our local hospitals knowing full well they would not only do a visual exam but likely a swab along with internal swabs as well. FYI - I noticed the first signs of a little irritation this past Tuesday evening, with one very little pinkish bump on the outside of the vaginal area.

Now this brings me to yesterday (Saturday). I rec'd a call from one of the Dr.'s at the hospital. When they did the visual and internal exam, not only did they swab from the bumps/sores, which btw there ended up being 4-5 of them on Thursday morning with no "new" ones since then, but they also took swabs from the cervical area - checking for gonorrhea, syphlis, chlamydia and bacteria. Apparently one test has come back positive for bacertial vaginosis which I've now started a prescription for today but also took a prescription for a yeast infection as well - preventative measure is what the Dr. said. Apparently because I take BirthControl and Dexadrine regularily, but recently on top of those because of what's goin on, I am also now on a prescription for a UTI (that I ended up having these past 4 weeks or so), Famvir (in case the rash in herpes - there's apparenty only a 72 hr window to treat the initial outbreak so the Dr. had me start the treatment Thursday afternoon - even before getting results back), a bacterial infection now and a yeast infection....I currently have 6 freaken different prescriptions in my body!!!!!

Anyway, none of the other test results have come back as yet. This Dr. who called me yesterday also said that there's a strong liklihood that the herpes test will come back negative even though they were able to get a scraping/swab from the less than 2 day old sores/bumps that had broke-out just outside the vaginal area. I asked him why and he said that the only way to get a result that is accruate is by testing the fluid inside the blisters but if the blisters aren't present during the exam there is no way of ensuring the test results will be accurate should my test come back negative. The 2 bumps that had little open sores at the tops of them were not fluid filled and if they were before going into the hospital, I didn't notice. The other bumps were not fluid filled but were tender to touch. So now I've been told that there is a good chance that the results may come negative which doesn't mean that I am if that's the case. I was just told that basically once what ever this is heals and I end up having another episode such as this, then they will assume it is the herpes virus and continue treating it as such....pending the results do come back negative that is. Of course if the result does come back positive than there is no dispute, it is what it is and treated as such.

Then he also told me that a blood test, even after 12-16 weeks isn't always accurate either!! That a person can still be positive but it's not showing yet. He basically said that the only time you can rely on any herpes testing result is if the result is actually positive. He said a result like that is always 100% and reliable.

I just can't believe how ridiculous this virus is or for that matter, not so much the virus but our health care system! Why the hell can there not be more funding put into research for a virus that clearly is a much bigger issue than most people realize and are educated about. Develop a damn test that is accurate whether the results are pos. or neg. And for that matter, put some money into education damn it!! Why are people not being educated on this virus and screened regularily for this....and HIV for that matter! There should be a reliable herpes test developed already!!....and screening for these two viruses (herpes/HIV) most especially should be mandatory as far as I'm concerned!! I don't care if I'm poked with a needle every 4-6 mths if it's going to help with the prevention of spreading these viruses....and I'm sure most wouldn't mind either....it's our freaken govn't and healthcare systems that mind!! (I am so angry!!!)

Sorry for that last bit there....just frustrated and went off on a bit of a rant. I'm sitting on pins and needles waiting for my results and can't stand this.... :O(