beaker24

First of all - sorry you were treated badly by this guy. Of course, he should have told you before you had sex, and it's pretty awful that he didn't.

OK, regarding testing: you know, when I was first concerned about having herpes, I called several helplines here in the UK where I live about how I could be tested. I found that my reading of a medical encyclopedia and a couple of webpages meant that I knew more than most of the people I was speaking to on the supposed "helplines". What's also concerning is that I know more about herpes than a couple of my friends who are doctors!

There are two ways of testing for herpes:

1. A type-specific blood test. Your health department may be referring to a non-type specific blood test, which may not distinguish between types 1 and 2. The significance is that anything between 40 to 80% of people will test positive for type 1, the virus which causes the vast majority of cold sores on the mouth (type 2 causes a minority of the problems there). Many people acquire this virus as a child, have one cold sore, and never see any other problems. They will still most likely test positive for herpes on a test though.

Type 2 is the classic genital herpes (although you can also get it on the mouth in rare cases, and type 1 is also increasingly found genitally) and the infection rates for this are lower.

The thing about a blood test is that it won't tell you WHERE you have the virus. If you test positive for type 2, it is reasonable to assume the infection is genital as oral infections of type 2 are quite rare. If you test positive for type 1, the balance is in favour of an oral infection, although as I have said, type 1 is on the increase genitally (I have it both genitally and orally).

You will need to wait around 12-16 weeks to be confident that a blood test has been accurate. I think in the USA you are probably looking for something called the Western Blot (they have different names here) as this distinguishes between the different types - perhaps a USA resident can confirm this?

2. The other way of testing is a culture of the sore, taken by it being swabbed. This can be more helpful as it tells you what virus you have, and where i.e. if a genital sore tests positive for type 1, then you know that you have type 1 genitally - whereas a blood test only tells you that you have the virus and not where you need to be concerned about it.

The downside is that cultures need to be carried out very soon after any sore appears - within 1 to 2 days, otherwise there is a significant risk of a false negative. Also, not all herpes symptoms are suitable for a culture test. A lot of people get herpes outbreaks which manifest as a scratch or a cut in the skin. These usually do not yield very good culture tests - they work better on the classic blisters and sores.

It's a good thing that you have used condoms but as you have realised, herpes outbreaks can occur anywhere in the genital region (and beyond e.g. the inside of thighs, top of the legs etc) and condoms are not as effective at preventing transmission of this skin to skin virus as they are at stopping viruses passed by bodily fluids.

Good luck... I hope you don't have herpes.