Reply To: Confused by “Symptoms” and IGG Levels

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I, like many others here, deal with health anxieties particularly STD anxiety. I’m currently in therapy to try to help with it and it has been going well. I know I need to be more responsible with my sex life.

1. I believe I have had cold sores in the past like many others but I could be mistaken. In your experience with IGG numbers decreasing over 9 months into almost an equivocal level what are the chances I could be getting a false positive for HSV-1?

I know the majority of the population has antibodies for HSV-1 so I’m not overly concerned about doing a western blot per se especially bc I can’t remember having any cold sores in a long time or any sort of outbreak genitally.

2. Having gotten negative results for HSV-2 every time I’ve tested would you be fairly certain that I do not have HSV-2 from those first two partners: tested 4 weeks and 6 months after the first partner and basically 12 weeks after the second.

3. If these symptoms are not herpes related what could it be? I’ve started looking into pelvic floor dysfunction for men and some of these symptoms line up. Do you have any knowledge/experience with that subject?

Im sure my anxiety is playing a larger role in this than anything else. I guess I’m just looking for some guidance moving forward.

Thank you for your time and all that you do for this community.