Hi, about 8 months ago I received unprotected oral from a sex worker, no intercourse. I should note, I have had HSV1 orally since I was 15 and I’m now 30. After the encounter I had urethritis symptoms nearly immediately and some nerve pain. I was given doxycycline and told there was nothing to swab for HSV. The nerve symptoms have continued basically daily for 8 months. Being on and off of antibiotics I have a few times developed red irritation and twice small cuts in my groin and once near my penis head and the skin was dry and flakey. Each time I had the area swabbed within 30 hours, and I’ve now had 7 swabs done, all negative for HSV. I’ve also had blood testing done 7 times for HSV2 and am negative as far as 8 months out. 

In addition, I’ve been taking Monolaurin recently daily because I’ve heard it can be an antiviral, though I still have symptoms. Would this impact swab results? If I’ve had 7 swabs and truly had HSV wouldn’t one of them likely be positive?

Can I stop believing this is genital HSV1? It almost impossible that I would have HSV2 from oral and that I would test negative on blood and swabs this far out. And I think one of these PCR swabs, particularly from a cut would pick up hsv1? All doctors have told me my visual symptoms look nothing like HSV including sexual health, dermatologists, GPs. They say it looks fungal or maybe psoriasis, but the tingling concerns me. I just don’t want to be scared to have intercourse and transmit to someone. Thanks for your help!
---

Can I also assume it’s not HSV 2 if swabs are negative and blood tests? I know blood tests have false negatives, but isn’t HSV2 like 90% accurate? Have you ever seen multiple false negative swabs?

I think that you can believe that this is not HSV 2, yes.  The igG test misses 8% of HSV 2 infections compared to the gold standard western blot but combined with negative swabs, I think you are likely in the clear---

Okay, last question. Do you ever see swabs as false negative or have people who are actually infected continue to have negative swabs?

And would Monolaurin impact results at all? I know I’ve hit my limit so good to shut this down after answers. Thanks 

The Monolaurin would not impact the testing now.  And I have seen people who have done swabs that are negative and they are indeed infected.  Timing of the swabs is an important component of this issue - swabs should be done as soon as possible after appearance of a lesion.  If done later on, they could be falsely negative.  Also the kind of swab it should be is PCR, not culture---