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I have been living in complete shock and I feel like damaged good since the day this doctor ran an std panel that I didn’t ask for and she had no reason to do. The visit was for depression and anxiety which I am currently struggling with now even more. Since this was a new doctor she needed to run test to get my current health standing like glucose and etc. I asked if she can run a basic STD testing since every year I like to get the basic hiv, and chlamydia and etc testing. So when I got the results from the testing she requested and it was hsv 1 37 and hsv 2 1.14.I was in shock and it took me into a rabbit hole of wanting to kill myself and this was met with the doctor saying why am I so upset it’s good know . But thats when I learned about you and the western blot which I took and came back negative for HSV 2 and positive for HSV 1. I am just looking for hope. I have never gotten an out break or anything in my 26 years of life. So my question is will I get an outbreak ? Have you every heard of anyone never getting a outbreak. None of my ex sexual partners have gotten any symptoms or cold sore or anything. So I don’t know what to think. Is the western blot test checks for antibodies or the virus its self? I am now living my life constantly check my lips and inside my mouth and looking at my genital area for lesions. Every tingle or itch I think is it I don’t know much longer I can take this I have a therapist and it’s not working . Any words of encouragement will help. Thanks again.
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The western blot looks for antibodies to HSV 1 and 2. Half the adult population under 49 has HSV 1 and more as people age. It’s very common. If you have received oral sex in your lifetime, it could either be oral or genital but with no sores to swab anywhere, we cannot know the location of your infection. The good news is that if you have it genitally, it is rarely shed from that location and rarely recurs. If you have it orally, it will be shed a bit more often but without symptoms, you will shed virus less than the person with recurrent cold sores does. You can stop looking inside your mouth. Cold sores will show up most often externally or in your nose.
I think that you and your therapist should be working on 1) the commonality of the virus 2) the likelihood that you will not shed often as it is currently asymptomatic and 3) accepting that we all have stuff we wish we didn’t – many are things we cannot see like meanness or cheapness or obsessions. But this one, you have and so does have the population.
This is new to you and you need time to adjust but thankfully, your blot was negative for HSV 2. Good news and good for you for getting the blot.
You asked your doctor for an STI screen – they were thorough and did more than many and you aren’t happy about the results, but you’ve been living with this for a long time and you’ve been OK all that time. You will be again.
Terri
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A PCR can be done from anything, even completely normal skin. the trick is getting a provider to do it who understands that. yes, the yield is far better from an actual sore, but we’ve recovered virus many times in our research study from people who have no symptoms and are doing swabbing as part of the study.
In terms of medication, if you are concerned about infecting someone else, you could do that or if you are concerned about having an outbreak, you could do that. Or you could certainly skip it if neither of these are worrisome to you. Medication is not going to change anything in terms of you being infected, but you probably know that already.
I have HSV 1, my husband does, two of my three kids do, two of my four grandchildren do, it’s just so common and most often is oral – all is oral in our family. I take daily Valtrex and haven’t had a full blown cold sore since starting 18 years ago. it works like a charm but then I had frequently recurring cold sores and you don’t.
Terri
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There really isn’t much point in blind swabbing for HSV 1, quite honestly. Blind swabbing is swabbing when there are no symptoms. And that works pretty well for HSV 2, but for HSV 1, since it could be oral or genital, it’s difficult to know where to start (95% of HSV 2 is genital so we would only swab there if doing blind swabbing). I think you should accept that you are infected with HSV 1, if you have a lesions either orally or genitally, have it swab tested (including inside your nose).
Terri
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