HSV-1 and Confused – Did it disappear or never really there?

[Anon676]

Hi Terri,

I am 45 female.

Here is my timeline….

In late May 2021, I had a new male partner and several days after our first encounter of both vaginal and oral sex, I had a lot of vaginal irritation and thought it was a yeast infection and some tearing from friction or something. Literally, I just thought it was from “overuse”. Naturally, I made an appointment with my gyno, having just been there a few weeks before for my annual exam, and her words were “oh you poor thing”, and said it looks like herpes and likely HSV-1 from oral sex. She also said I did have a yeast infection and possible BV. The trifecta!

Anyway, she did a culture of the “lesion” which I thought was a skin tear and gave me an initial dose of Valtrex to help it go away faster. That week was awful and painful and had a few more sores appear. And ultimately, the culture came back positive for HSV-1. The results said “typing was confirmed by monoclonal antibody microscopic immunofluorescence.” And the IgM and IgG tests came back negative – which she said indicated it was a new infection and not from a prior partner.

Fast forward, I had a repeat IgG test done in August 2021 – Results were HSV-1 at 2.1 (positive) and HSV-2 at <0.91 (negative).

So for a year now I have been living with this diagnosis and haven’t had any new partners since the man who gave this to me. But that’s a whole other story. haha

Yesterday, at my annual exam, I asked to repeat the IgG test as I was curious what the levels would be nearly a year later. She said to me she would do it but it means nothing and it wouldn’t matter if the range was higher than before anyway. But I insisted she run the bloodwork. Results were HSV-1 at <0.91 (negative) and HSV-2 still at <0.91 (negative). Huh?!?

SOOOOO what does this mean?! Could the culture have been a false positive? Are the IgG tests inaccurate? Should I do the western blot?

I’d really love to know for sure as this is puzzling!

Thank you!

[m_pink]

i have a hsv1 positive values of 2.55 so i’m interested in your story because i’m currently getting tested again today and i’m praying i have the results of you as a false positive but i’m guessing sometimes the test can trigger things and give u a positive because if you really had hsv1 then your value would go up not down! or one of the test are just simply wrong i think the best thing to do would be to keep testing every few months to year.

[Terri Warren]

You should believe the swab test. The IgG test for HSV 1 misses 30% of HSV 1 infections, and if often misses them repeatedly in the same person. It also yields some false positives so overall, not a great test.

Terri

[Anon676]

Thank you for your response. Since my doctor seems so blasé about all this, would your recommendation be that I don’t repeat any IgG tests in the future either? Would there be any other test, such as the western blot, to super confirm the swab was accurate? I am in NY though and I read on here that can be tricky. I haven’t had any outbreaks or symptoms since the initial one a year ago but had hoped based on the labs that maybe there was an error somewhere!

Also, I have had HPV for over 20 years so is there any way that outbreak was really HPV related??

I realize I am probably grasping at straws here. 🙂

[Terri Warren]

The western blot would be more accurate than the IgG test for HSV 1. I see no reason to repeat any IgG testing. It would be no problem getting the blot in New York, don’t worry about that.
You should do the blot at least 12 weeks after the swab test.

Terri

[Anon676]

So now I am more confused. My positive swab was 1 year ago, so way more than 12 weeks. So should I do the western blot to truly confirm that swab was accurate?

[Terri Warren]

ooops, sorry, missed that the swab was so long ago when I responded. My error. Yes, you can do the blot any time now.

Terri

[Anon676]

I tried to make an appointment with you via evisit but there is zero availability all year. Is that correct? I don’t want to order the test from UW if then you aren’t available at all to actually see this through. And I would also need to know where in NYC I can get the blood draw too.

[Terri Warren]

I definitely have appointments available on July 6th, just checked it.
So we are in the process of getting a more formal process in place to work with a lab in NYC to get the blood draws done. I just spoke with them yesterday and the contract is being finalized. I expect we’ll be back getting blood draws done in a matter of weeks. If there is an urgency about this, we do know a lab in New Jersey near Trenton that can definitely do the draw.

Terri

Terri

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