Help! IGG Positive HSV1

[STMR]

Hi there,

if someone could PLEASE shed some light on this topic and help me it would be appreciated greatly, my head is in overdrive right now.

While on vacation my boyfriend of 1 year come up in genital herpes. When it first appeared, we originally thought it was an ingrown hair. We had sex, many times, until one morning he woke up with a cluster of angry, red pussing sores.  By the time we had made it home it had cleared up and so when the area was swabbed by a nurse at a clinic unfortunately the results had came back a low positive for herpes so unable to tell what type. When this had happened of course my mind went crazy, how the hell has my partner got genital herpes? Has he cheated? Had he known this previously before meeting me and not told me? am i infected?

I waited the correct amount of time for an IGG and ordered one. My results come back positive for Type 1 which is usually known to appear in and around the mouth, however possible to contract in genital area. I couldn't believe my eyes! i have NEVER in my life had a cold sore, any peculiar looking 'spot', i have never suffered with ulcers/fever spots and i most certainly have never had herpes on my genitals. I made him take the IGG, his result was positive, again for Type 1. so now i know that his genital herpes are Type 1 related, and that we both have this infection. You may think i am being dramatic but let me tell you this week has been the most devastating, confusing, heart breaking week of my life. 

Since the tests have came back, he has admitted that what he had told me about his past relations were not true, and that every sexual encounter he had, he did not use protection. He had told me that he had no idea where this has come from however would continuously name one girl in particular because she was promiscuous, And with the thoughts in my head about the oral wart he had in his mouth when we very first met, you can imagine the thoughts i had running through my head, I was looking at the face of someone i didn't know. 

my results: HVS1 Positive 27.9 , HVS2 Negative <0.500

His results: HSV1 Positive 11.6 , HSV2 Negative 0.500

(IGG Test performed - DiaSorin Liaison HSV 1/2 IGG TEST)

My question is - Can you read these results? Do these numbers mean anything? I had spoke to someone through the company that i had my IGG with and she had told me that a high index number means you are going to, currently have, or are getting over an outbreak. yet when i have spent many days googling i have read the complete opposite with one page saying a higher number means the body has been infected for a longer time, and another saying the numbers simply mean nothing. Please help. I'm beside myself. atleast my OH knows where his infection is, I'm terrified, waiting to find out where mine is.

[LucyLevi]

Hello STMR

Welcome to Honeycomb and I hope there will be plenty of people here who can help you to understand your results. Of course the good news is that you and your partner do share the same virus so nothing regarding your relationship and intimacy should need to change.

As for your results it can be tricky but what we do know for sure is that you have built up more antibodies than your partner. This could mean that you might have had an asymptomatic oral infection (this can happen) and that your partner has picked up the genital version via oral sex. You will know from your activity whether this is possible or not. I don't however think that you can rely on this as being the only scenario, but it seems a possible contender.   I personally do not agree with your IGG company at all. I have not heard that but I am happy to stand corrected if anyone else here can advise.  

The good news for your OH is that genital HSV1 can sometimes only occur the one time and he may never have another outbreak, or they may be very infrequent. There is also a school of thought that genital to genital HSV1 transmission is quite rare, this is because the shedding is much less and so are the outbreaks. If you take this into account, that might well suggest you have an old asymptomatic oral infection. The best thing to do is have a swab (oral or genital) if you do show any signs and that will determine your place of infection. I suspect however that if you haven't had an outbreak you may never do so. That's a good thing! I must admit that for your partner an IGG of 11 plus does not sound like a new infection either. Is it possible that these sores were not herpes and actually they are a 'red herring' which has lead you both to find out you have longstanding HSV1 which you may not otherwise have known about?

Keep coming along and listening to what others can offer here as I am by no means an expert or medically aware. I hope who ever that it goes someway toward providing at least some answers.

Take care

Lucy

[WilsoInAus]

We can indeed help here.

The tests very clearly indicate that you both have HSV-1. The numbers mean very little except to confirm an infection. They measure just a single aspect of the immune system being IgG antibodies that are in your blood. There are a total of 80 aspects of your immune system that address the virus. Nothing much can be concluded regarding what will happen with the virus and your immune system based on just a mechanical measurement of a single aspect of your immune system.

You cannot conclude anything regarding length of time for the infection from these numbers, at least nothing more accurate that he infection is greater than about 12 weeks old in both cases.

You describe for yourself a classic case of having HSV-1 since childhood and not experiencing outbreaks in living memory. There are a lot of people in this category, up to 40% of people with oral HSV-1. That's a couple of billion people in the world! You can be quite confident you are one of these people. If you had experienced a genital HSV-1 infection... you'd very much know it!!

Turning to your boyfriend, this has the hallmarks of an infection of his genitals from oral sex. Did you also perform oral sex on the vacation? Where exactly were his sores?

You describe 'pussy' sores. This is pretty critical. Was there actual pus, meaning a white, creamy textured substance such as what comes out of pimples? Or was the pussy nature of the sores related to weeping clear liquid?

You describe a swab test that was 'low positive' for herpes. This is not possible with a swab, the outcome is positive or negative (detected or not detected) there is no in-between. I think it would be very worthwhile getting the actual printout of this test result.

 

[Seeker1960]

I think she said "Pussing" sores as in pus filled. You might want to edit your post.

[WilsoInAus]

Yes I did mean 'pussing' sores - but I cannot edit posts at the moment, I think there is an issue with the forum at present in this regard.

 

 

[STMR]

On 30 March 2017 at 6:15 PM, LucyLevi said:

Hello STMR

Welcome to Honeycomb and I hope there will be plenty of people here who can help you to understand your results. Of course the good news is that you and your partner do share the same virus so nothing regarding your relationship and intimacy should need to change.

As for your results it can be tricky but what we do know for sure is that you have built up more antibodies than your partner. This could mean that you might have had an asymptomatic oral infection (this can happen) and that your partner has picked up the genital version via oral sex. You will know from your activity whether this is possible or not. I don't however think that you can rely on this as being the only scenario, but it seems a possible contender.   I personally do not agree with your IGG company at all. I have not heard that but I am happy to stand corrected if anyone else here can advise.  

The good news for your OH is that genital HSV1 can sometimes only occur the one time and he may never have another outbreak, or they may be very infrequent. There is also a school of thought that genital to genital HSV1 transmission is quite rare, this is because the shedding is much less and so are the outbreaks. If you take this into account, that might well suggest you have an old asymptomatic oral infection. The best thing to do is have a swab (oral or genital) if you do show any signs and that will determine your place of infection. I suspect however that if you haven't had an outbreak you may never do so. That's a good thing! I must admit that for your partner an IGG of 11 plus does not sound like a new infection either. Is it possible that these sores were not herpes and actually they are a 'red herring' which has lead you both to find out you have longstanding HSV1 which you may not otherwise have known about?

Keep coming along and listening to what others can offer here as I am by no means an expert or medically aware. I hope who ever that it goes someway toward providing at least some answers.

Take care

Lucy

thank you so much for replying!!

So do you believe that the higher the index value, the longer you've had the infection for? 

Also do you know if having chicken pox as a child could put the numbers up? or does that have nothing to do with it?

I am not 100% putting the blame on him, however its just that whenever I have read about genital herpes most people have their first outbreak in a matter of days and we have been together for a year.  So in theory, going by his index value, its a well established infection and he could have well lied about that being his first outbreak? And I cant rule out that he's been unfaithful, maybe its a huge coincidence but he was acting VERY distant a few weeks prior to this outbreak.

[STMR]

On 30 March 2017 at 10:25 PM, WilsoInAus said:

We can indeed help here.

The tests very clearly indicate that you both have HSV-1. The numbers mean very little except to confirm an infection. They measure just a single aspect of the immune system being IgG antibodies that are in your blood. There are a total of 80 aspects of your immune system that address the virus. Nothing much can be concluded regarding what will happen with the virus and your immune system based on just a mechanical measurement of a single aspect of your immune system.

You cannot conclude anything regarding length of time for the infection from these numbers, at least nothing more accurate that he infection is greater than about 12 weeks old in both cases.

You describe for yourself a classic case of having HSV-1 since childhood and not experiencing outbreaks in living memory. There are a lot of people in this category, up to 40% of people with oral HSV-1. That's a couple of billion people in the world! You can be quite confident you are one of these people. If you had experienced a genital HSV-1 infection... you'd very much know it!!

Turning to your boyfriend, this has the hallmarks of an infection of his genitals from oral sex. Did you also perform oral sex on the vacation? Where exactly were his sores?

You describe 'pussy' sores. This is pretty critical. Was there actual pus, meaning a white, creamy textured substance such as what comes out of pimples? Or was the pussy nature of the sores related to weeping clear liquid?

You describe a swab test that was 'low positive' for herpes. This is not possible with a swab, the outcome is positive or negative (detected or not detected) there is no in-between. I think it would be very worthwhile getting the actual printout of this test result.

 

Thank you very much for your reply. 

As I already asked another member, do you know if chicken pox could raise the numbers or be the reason for a positive result? i remember having chicken pox mildly, however frequently as a child when it was rife in nursery.

The sores were 100% herpes, although you cant diagnose from looking, you cannot confuse a severe outbreak of herpes to a couple of ingrown hairs. there was a large amount blisters clustered around on his pubic area and the base of his penis. the areas where the blisters formed was very irritated and swollen, red and if popped would leak clear discharge and would  crust over. We did visit a clinic out in Mauritius and the doctor diagnosed herpes, however my OH didn't choose to have a test because our insurance didn't cover it.

I thought exactly the same as you when my OH told me that his swab back home couldn't give a result. I made him call the clinic up next to me, over the phone she said that on his notes were a 'weak' positive and that there was not a confirmation on what type it was. My response was the same as yours, if its a positive then its a POSITIVE. You'd be able to distinguish which one because they would have tested for both! The nurse's excuse was that the test wasn't able to tell because the skin was in the healing process and a very minimal amount of virus left.

Can I also ask, lets say hypothetically i have the HSV1 already in the genital area, if I then performed oral on my boyfriend while the blisters were there OR he was shedding, could I then contract the HSV1 in my mouth? Or as i already have it in my system it cant 're infect' me?

thanks very much

[WilsoInAus]

There's a lot that sounds like herpes, but yeast, staph and so on can confusingly look similar. Overall seems a very good chance you infected him from your oral infection.

As you already have a HSV-1 infection it is now a negligible to zero chance you will get it elsewhere - wherever elsewhere may be!

[LucyLevi]

On 3/30/2017 at 5:10 PM, STMR said:

Since the tests have came back, he has admitted that what he had told me about his past relations were not true, and that every sexual encounter he had, he did not use protection. He had told me that he had no idea where this has come from however would continuously name one girl in particular because she was promiscuous, And with the thoughts in my head about the oral wart he had in his mouth when we very first met, you can imagine the thoughts i had running through my head, I was looking at the face of someone i didn't know. 

I think it is important here to note that you can get herpes even if you use protection as many people here will testify. I can't really comment on the oral wart as I don't know about this but I assume this was an HPV infection?

 

To be honest what you describe does sound like a first outbreak of GHSV, GHSV1 can be really aggressive for the first outbreak, but further outbreaks are usually mild  and in some people  they never reoccur again and if they do they don't happen often. What you are describing are a lot of blisters keep cropping up which would suggest its a first ob.  

If I had to stake a bet here I would think he has got it from your asymptomatic oral infection. Of course no one can rule out infidelity here, (because he could have got it from anyone with an oral infection) but I think you have to put yourself in the running.

Just to throw another scenario in here, it is also possible that you both have established HSV1 oral infections and that this is a new infection of HSV2, Given the swabs were not typed you perhaps cannot rule this out if you consider infidelity an issue. If however, he had his blood test done 12 weeks post the blisters then I think you can pretty much rule that out, in which case we are back to a new GHSV1 infection . 

I hope you can talk to each other and get past this anxiety and move forward. Come here anytime as we are here to support you

Take care

Lucy

 

[MoniqueLow]

Hi all, I have a question regarding STMR's situation. She writes her bfriend had sores at his pubic area and the base of penis. If it was really primary OB, I have read that sores appear where the virus entered the body. In that case it would mean he could contract the virus from genital sex (even with condom). I may be wrong, but wouldn't be top of penis rather affected by oral sex as there is mucous membrane, so it's easier for virus to enter? I have contracted hsv 1 through genital sex (just one incident!) although  I have oral hsv 1 for 20+ years. Thanks in an advance for replies.