Jack101

@UnsureConfused, Yes i have heard of people testing indeterminate by Western Blot. Terry Warren at West Over Heights clinic may still be looking for individuals with this profile for her new study. She is working with a group on a new tests sorting out the indeterminates by Western Blot.

@starlover, you should believe the genital swab. Your body simply has not produced antibodies. This is likely a new outbreak.

@Tayg, IgM tests for herpes are worthless and should be removed from current test menus. They provide no information. It is questionable, if you should even pay for a test that has proven to be no longer valid. You need to have a IgG test for any meanful information

@Saddestcount, There is a high chance you have a false positive. I would recommend a WesternBlot test for confirmation.

If you have only been with one person that is negative for HSV-2 (unless you acquired it congenitally) how would you have HSV-2.

@markh. The IgM test is worthless, it is unreliable and detects to many false positives and negative. The test should be discontinued. A test result as low as 1.04 on a IgG test has a over 90% chance of being a false positive in the absence of symptoms. However, that is not your value as it was a IgM test. You will need to get a IgG test.

Hello, I would advise he get a Western Blot test for HSV-1. The common ELISA test misses up to 30% of HSV-1 infections (far to unreliable for decision purposes). You will not need to use protection if he is already infected.

How is everything going now Fonda?

@MEO1016. You should have your boyfriend tested for herpes by the Western Blot test if you want to know for sure he does not have HSV-1. The common Eliza test misses up to 30% of HSV-1 cases.

What was your test result from the Herpes Elisa test. If you have never had a outbreak, this may result a false positive.

You can get a biopsy of the lesion to definitely confirm what it is.

All HPV strains can cause genital warts. It is just the high risk strains that can lead to high grade dysplasia and invasive carcinoma.

The typical Elisa blood test for HSV-1, has a 30% chance of false negative; as such he may actually have the disease and represent a false negative. A Western Blot test could resolve this issue. HSV-1 can also be spread from genital to genital contact.

Candida is a normal floral organism, but can overgrow in times of stress. Are you circumcised?

Have you thought of a fungal infection.

Or she had cheilitis which is often mistaken as a cold sore.

@fonda, if your urologist tries fluconazole remind your doctor of prostate penetration, a 400 mg dose for at least two weeks should be sufficient.

Secondly, type 1 can occur orally or genitally and so can type 2. However, the types cannot switch based on location. Type 1 oral, cannot become type 2 genital. Typing is based on the composition of the virus, not the location.

Your symptoms are not consistent with Herpes. Herpes has outbreaks, the pain would not just occur during sex. In addition, if you have never had other sexual partner, and he is negative, this is likely a false negative.

Hmm, it is odd that antibiotics would appear to make the condition worse. It would also appear you have been on multiple antibiotics with no improvement. This may represent a fungal infection rather than a bacterial one. I think you should talk to your urologist about possible anti-fungals (fluconazole) if no bacterial etiology can be determined. It has been shown that some cases of prostatitis would appear to be related to Candida infection.

I think we need more information. You may have had HSV-2, but the symptoms you describe are not typical of HSV-2. It is likely you are coinfected with other organism. In addition, why would they do a culture of HSV-2 (do you mean PCR swab), viruses are difficult to culture. Have you been checked for G/C orally.

@username. You are correct. HSV is not a normal secreted component of saliva in individuals infected with HSV; however, if you have a sore in the mouth or lip or the virus is shedding from a mucosal lining saliva can carry HSV virus. You are also correct that sharing utensils with adults is generally a minimal risk for HSV infection as HSV can not usually survive outside the body greater than 10 seconds in low saliva environments. However, in general, the sharing of utensils which young children and with masticated food are hardly low saliva environments. Would you really eat after a friend if they produced a utensil covered in drool or partially chewed food? Would you brush your teeth with a toothbrush from a friend with a HSV blister after they just finished brushing? Children also are infected by skin to skin contact as well. The virus is highly contagious, as in some African countries the prevalence of HSV-1 nears 100% and in developed countries is around 70% in adults. Studies documenting transmission risks of HSV-1 are also difficult to determine. This is due to the fact that the majority of oral HSV-1 infections are asymptomatic, the virus is widespread, and the most popular IgG test for HSV-1 misses approximately 30% of positives. So it is difficult to say if a person is truly HSV-1 negative, unless they take a western blot test. Even this test cannot be truly validated with asymptomatic individuals, as it is looking for antibodies, not the virus. If someone were to make a variant antibody to HSV-1 the test may show negativity, even if the person is infected. Conversely, if a new antibody similar to HSV-1 were to develop this could create the potential for false positives. This appears to be the case with the current Herpes Select test, as there has been a recent uptick in high false positives (greater than 3.5) for HSV-2. This is less of a problem with the western blot test as several antigens on the antibody are examined. This is the drawback of using an antibody test to evaluate the disease. Daily oral/genital swabs over months would be more accurate to detect shedding, but impractical on a population based scale. In addition, many individuals only think you have oral herpes if you have cold sores and don't remember they can be asymptomatic carriers and even those who have taken the IgG test and are negative may actually be truly positive.

Katidid has your husband been tested for HSV-2 by serology. He may have contracted HSV-2 orally by now and the need for condoms would not be a concern as far as HSV-2 is concerned.

The prevalence of oral HSV-1 is not decreasing uniformly. This decrease is predominately seen in the developed countries with differences associated with ethic groups and socioeconomic status. The decrease is attributed to an increase in sanitation and changing childcare habits. For example, my caretakers would often feed me adult food before I was of age to chew the food. As such, they would often soften the food in there mouths before transferring it to me. In addition, multiple children were often fed with utensils directly from our caretakers. I then would be placed with other children. As you know, children are constantly putting things in their mouths and sharing with each other (i.e. all the children would be affected and then go on to pass it to other children they interact with). As such, the vast majority of children affected are probably not infected by adults, but by other children sharing items covered by saliva. As you can see, all that needs to be broken in the above chain are caretakers not sharing food that has touched their mouths or keeping children isolated from other children. This explains the ethnic distribution and socioeconomic factors involved. Unfortunately, this illustrates a byproduct of our society. While decreasing childhood HSV-1, we leave our children open to genital HSV-1 in adulthood and the prevalence of HSV-1 will likely remain the same in older adults. As a medical professional, the irony is not missed on me concerning the stigma of genital HSV-1 or HSV-2. I understand the general public is concerned about herpes, but as 70-90% of population has some form of herpes (HSV1/2) i feel that the stigma could be dispelled if herpes was included as part of the standard STD panel (and all the carriers of HSV-1/2 were revealed) and I am currently advocating for this. In fact, those negative for HSV1/2 would be in the minority and have such a limited dating pool, they likely would have no problems being infected ( at least orally to minimize symptoms) to join the majority of the population.

You should get a IgG herpes test stat. It should be negative with a recent outbreak. However, I am concerned that your boyfriend will not be tested. Though the majority of the people have HSV-1 (50-80%) orally, numbers are irrelevant to individuals. Would you mind catching HSV-1 genitally as well as HSV-2. For that matter, would you mind catching HPV, HIV, or other diseases from him. I think you should reconsider your relationship if he refuses to get tested. He clearly is not that concerned about your health.