"It's not uncommon to get outbreaks on your back, depending on where it is on your back. The sacral ganglia is essentially waist down, and you can get outbreaks anywhere where boxer shorts would cover."
I wish I could upload photos. My HSV2 patches have been way, way above the waist line . Imagine placing a hand or two above your waist...at the very top of that hand is where I'm getting them. Literally as high as just below the shoulder blades...to where the adrenals would be on the back. I guess I will ask for a blood test at my annual physical next week to make sure everything is diagnosed properly and second-tested. Yes, of course, the trials require that the diagnosis to be 100% correct before participation can occur.
You had a positive culture - it's very rare that those are false positives, though it's always possible.
You could get a blood test - a type specific IgG blood test - to confirm if you have hsv2 antibodies if you need to in order to accept the diagnosis.
It's not uncommon to get outbreaks on your back, depending on where it is on your back. The sacral ganglia is essentially waist down, and you can get outbreaks anywhere where boxer shorts would cover.
Shingles very rarely recurs, so I'm not surprised it's not shingles.
You could have IBS, hemorrhoids, and herpes and those things are not connected. It would just be separate things you have.
I don't know why you started with symptoms the day after sex - it takes at least 2 days to show symptoms of herpes, so maybe what you felt was just irritation or something else entirely.