Accuracy of blood test / new sexual encounter

[LAW1984]

I am so grateful to have come across your work and research! I have found out more in one day about Herpes than I have in 8 weeks.

I had a one night stand on 12th Dec 2020, unprotected sex, including unprotected oral. I was highly anxious and stressed afterwards regarding STD/STI. Two days later I had a sore/ulcer, I contacted my local STD clinic however they were unable to see me due to Christmas holidays etc. On the days that followed I had a number of other ulcers inside my vagina along with white discharge. They weren’t particularly painful but I was aware of them. The STD clinic put me on antivirals for a week and it cleared up. Please note the ulcers did not appear to burst / crust / cause pain when urinating. Also no other symptoms e.g flu/swollen lymph nodes etc. The usual STDs came back clear also.

Please note unable to contact this person to ask about his Herpes status.

I carried out a letsgetchecked test last Monday (8 weeks after) and the results are as follows:
Herpes simplex 1 IGG 1.11 – positive
Herpes simplex 2 IGG 0.5 – negative

Both my parents have HSV1 on coldsore form so I was half expecting this result however this looks like a new infection?

My question is :

1. do you think I’ve caught genital HSV 1 from this encounter
2. I do plan on retesting at 12 weeks, but do you think the results will more than likely stay the same at this stage?

I thank you in advance.

[Terri Warren]

Interesting post.
How did you see the ulcerations inside your vagina, were they actually visible to you? Few things cause ulcerations in the vagina in the US besides herpes. Had you ever had a cold sore on your lip prior to this? Your HSV 1 is just barely positive. Have you taken antiviral medication?

Terri

[LAW1984]

Hi Terri,

I felt a ‘spot’ then checked with a mirror, after 3-4 days more appeared (around 8) They looked very similar to mouth ulcers. They were a bit uncomfortable but didn’t seem to cause the extreme pain I’ve read online that would be expected. A soak in the bath certainly did help!

Yes I took acyclovir 5 times a day from 23 Dec for a week. Do you think this may have had an impact on my blood result?

Do you think blood result could be accurate after 8 weeks exposure?

I’ve never had a coldsore on my face, never had a tingle or anything remotely similar.

I’m interested to know your thoughts on this.

Thank you

[Terri Warren]

well, that does sound like herpes to me.
I don’t think the dose and duration of antiviral therapy is enough to impact your antibody test, no.
And if using the IgG test, 8 weeks is close to as good as it is going to get.
The IgG test for HSV 1 is nowhere near as good as it is for HSV 2, so I’m not sure what to make of your results. How about if you repeat the IgG test at 8 weeks and let me know what it shows and we’ll go from there.

Terri

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