Need clarification

[TSV1212]

Hello, I tested positive for hsv1 on August 3 (via igg blood test) and will be retesting next week, which will make it exactly 16 weeks since last sexual contact.  There is a clinic nearby me called Any Test Now, which offers the igg test.  Is the igg test the same as the Elisa test.  I'm a bit confused about which test is best to finally put my mind at ease.

 

[Sanguine108]

ELISA is a test that looks for antibodies like IgG. IgG made in response to HSV.

PCR looks only for DNA (DNA of HSV

ELISA is an acronym meaning enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

ELISA is protein (IgG) based.
PCR is DNA based.

IgG is more informative to tell how your body is actively responding.
PCR will just tell you YES or NO.

Both can have false positive.  Western Blot is the next step above and beyond.

[HopefulAK]

By actively responding, does that imply how likely you are to have outbreaks??

I'm still learning myself... Thanks!!

[TSV1212]

Okay, thank you for the information.

[TSV1212]

Well I had an IGG test 17 weeks after last sexual contact and I am positive for hsv1.  What I have learned from this experience is nothing is written in stone. 

[WilsoInAus]

I am not sure what you mean by wirtten in stone.

Your testing has pretty well confirmed that you have had an oral HSV-1 infection since childhood and you were not infected with HSV-2 by the episode you described.

How are your yeast issues going?

[TSV1212]

I started getting really bad yeast infections in February of this year.  They would not go away and the doctor and I couldn't figure out what was causing them.  He finally prescribed a 6 month course of diflucan in April.  In May I had a terrible headache, I can't remember ever having a headache quite as severe.  A couple of days later a woke up with one sore.  I thought it was an ingrown hair so I didn't think much of it but it was extremely painful.  I got another yeast infection so went to the doctor once again about 10 days later, by then it was scabbed over and she said it was nothing but an ingrown hair.  On July 10, I became extremely sick.  I had a headache, sore throat, and body aches.  When I woke up in the morning my bottom was burning. I went to the bathroom and noticed that I had three big ulcers.  I panicked and picked them until they bled.  I knew what it was as soon as I saw them.  But that didn't stop me from googling.  I soon found sites like this one so I posted because I tried to figure who had passed this on to me.  I had a sexual encounter with a nurse at my hospital in March and reconnected with my ex in May and June.  Everyone kept saying it had to be my ex because of the time frame.  I assumed that I had hsv2 and went nto a terrible depression.  There was absolutely zero oral sex so it couldn't be hsv1.  I was told over and over that the time frame sealed the deal that it was my ex.  I almost comfronted him and accused him of giving me herpes.  Thank goodness I didn't.  When I finally went to the doctor and had a blood test I tested positive for hsv1.  I was confused because of what everyone was telling me.  I had not had oral sex performed on me since February so I never even considered that encounter.  It took five months to have an OB.  Looking back I am positive the  yeast issues were OB's since they started right after the oral sex encounter.  

After receiving my test results today, I can put this behind me but wanted to share my story in order to help others.  Don't let anyone tell you that it has to be one or the other because of the time frame or that yeast isn't related.  This thing doesn't play by the rules.  It is different for everyone. After my OB in July, I was sore and my vagina felt raw for about two months.  But since then, I have moved across the country started eating like before and I am fine.  I haven't had another sore.  Life is back to normal, except that I'm terrified of ever having sex again.  

[WilsoInAus]

There are plenty of great learnings from your story. What you have described is an unfortunate but typical experience that most women will experience in their lifetimes. This happens to women who do and don't have genital herpes, it is unrelated.

Your story, your symptoms and your test results all point to the conclusion that you do not have genital herpes. You should conclude though that you have an oral HSV-1 infection and always have.

I hope that the chronic vaginal episodes do not return, induced by sex or otherwise.

I hope you're able to put all to rest and live life the way you choose, sexually and otherwise!

[TSV1212]

This is one negative aspect about sites like these.  People come here for answers and really shouldn't.  I am guilty of that myself because I was lost and didn't know where else to turn.   But we are given medical advice by people that are not doctors.  Even some doctors have no idea what symptoms appear with this virus.  How can you say with 100% certainty that yeast infections are not related.  This is not a medical site and I don't believe that any representative of this site should be giving that kind of advice. I disagree wholeheartedly.  I know what I experienced and after speaking to my partner from February he confirmed that he gets cold sores and has since childhood.  If you read the symptoms that woman get, most do list yeast infections.  There is no way it is a coincidence.  Our bodies are trying to get a handle on this virus and there is no telling what kind of symptoms could arise from it.

I didn't have the sores swabbedbecause it had been 9 days since they appeared and they were scabbed over but the doctor said that he believed it was herpes because he had seen it many times, while working in a std clinic.

I also know that I did not have hsv1 as a child because I was tested in 2009 when I started a long term relationship and I was negative for 1 and 2.  Yet, look how easy you throw out another "fact" that I have always had it.  Which is incorrect.

I hope that others take the advice they get here with a grain of salt and realize that you are hearing peoples opinions, not facts.  Your body may deal with this virus differently than the classic textbook.  That's why you have people who don't know for 30 years that the have this virus.  They never developed sores but had other minor symptoms and never put two and two together.  Trust your instincts, you know your body.  

 

[WilsoInAus]

Everything is opinion online, that is the point. It is up to you what you choose to believe. All I am saying is that there is not conclusive evidence that you have a genital HSV-1 infection as such other possibilities exist, some serious to your health that I hope you consider. There is nothing wrong with coming to a website to hear people's opinions. It shows a sign of mature, open mindedness.

This is not a medical website, it has never pretended to be, nor are the people pretending to be medical professionals. Everything is opinion, no one is pretending that such comments are fact.

Although you may have reached a conclusion regarding your status the whole point of the website is for people to understand the issues in full that enables them to reach their own conclusion, just like you have. It is important to realise that what I have said, regardless of whether correct or incorrect is a possibility that may be a different outcome for someone else.

It is perfectly feasible that a different person in your exact situation could reach the conclusion they do not have genital HSV-1 and they deserve the opportunity to work through the thought process. Even if a person has genital HSV-1, this is no reason to automatically attribute things like yeast infections to HSV-1. That is very dangerous for the person concerned.

You raise the issue of testing negative for HSV previously, it is important to note whether this is an IgG test as opposed to anything else that is not reliable. Further even IgG tests miss up to 1 in 5 infections hence it is not fact that you didn't have HSV-1 in 2009 but comes attached with a probability.

If you are comfortable with the conclusion you have HSV-1 and it is causing your problems then that is up to you. The benefits of doing so elude me, but if they are important to you then that is a matter for you. However you cannot expect that everyone should have the same conclusion about you or others in a similar position, that is true recognition of how unique we are.