Hi. new here,

Im a 34 yr old male, and i just found out i have genital herpes. It showed up on my testicles, wtf? (where is the emotional breakdown emoticon! lol) i had my first outbreak on 1/14/10, about 3 weeks ago. its pretty much gone now with the help of valtrex. Anyhow, i got a culture swab done about a week ago, and it came back positive. doctor didnt specify if it was type 1 or 2, just that 'its all herpes'. So i dont know what the numbers were on the test results either.

Anyhow, i told the girl i have been dating for about 4 months. she was shocked, and upset of course. she got a blood test and it came back positive. neither one of us has been with anyone else since we have been dating, and she has never had an outbreak, and neither of us have been aware we had herpes before we started sleeping together. this is kind of an unwanted mystery for us both.

Im not looking to place blame or anything, im just trying to know if its possible to figure out how/when by blood tests? i know its possible that she, I or both of us have had it in the past.

if i get a blood test, and the results for my antibodies come back low, can i guestimate by that number if this is a recent infection? if they are high, does that mean its an old infection? i've heard it takes many weeks to months to build antibodies, but my doctor said no, i would have them and that the blood test wouldnt help me. ? should i do it soon, since this is my first OB and its recent?

same thing with her, based on her blood test results can she know more about when she may have aquired it? is it worth comparing our numbers to get an idea? i know nothing is definitive, but is it possible?

i know that either one of us could have started developing antibodies months ago when we first met w/o having an outbreak.

neither one of us are mad at each other or placing blame. its been emotional, but since neither one of us gave it intentionally, theres no reason to place blame. but the not know how or where is tough. Am i just neurotic here and barking up the wrong tree?

Your help is appreciated

At this point if you both are + on the blood tests, it doesn't help you at all. About 1/2 of folks are + by the point you are at even with newly acquired infections. Your number being on the low side now or anything doesn't help sort this out either.

You two will never figure out who had it first at this point most likely. What's important is knowing that you are both +.

So what do you do now? Well really just avoid sex anytime it would be uncomfortable due to lesions being present. Otherwise it's not an issue. If you find you are having frequent recurrences, consider daily suppressive therapy to reduce them so that you have less interruptions to your sex life and less annoyances genitally.

keep asking questions as you have them!

betsy

ps I agree - we do need a "omg I"m falling part" icon....lol

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