IgG Results just in - Can anyone interpret them please?

[DonnaItaliana]

Hi all,

 

So I must be about 11-12 weeks in after having had my first OB at the end of September.

 

The sexual helath clinic that I first went to and got swabbed by told me that I had contracted HSV 2 but according to the blood test results I've just received in the post today, and if I'm reading it correctly, I've been detected as having HSV 1. It reads thus:

 

HSV-1/2 IgG: Detected

HSV-2 IgG Not Detected

Serological evidence of prior Herpes simplex virus type 1 infection at some time.

 

The blood test was done at St Thomas' Hospital in London so I'd have thought their findings would have been more accurate. Also, when it states "prior" infection at "some time" do they mean prior as quite a while back or recent? I'm confused!

[mr_hopp]

IgG tests are notoriously unreliable, unfortunately. But swabs never lie if there's enough of an outbreak to get a proper culture from. So it would seem based on what you are giving us, the IgG test either gave a false negative or the HSV-2 is a recent infection so there wasn't enough time to build up a detectable level of antibodies. And yes, about the HSV-1 infection, 80% of people have been exposed to it at some point in their lives; so many people have gotten cold sores as children, so there's no telling when or how you might have been exposed to HSV-1.

[DonnaItaliana]

Hi Adrial and thanks for replying.

 

So does that mean that the HSV 1 was lying dormant in me and I only just had my initial OB when I was infected with the HSV2 recently? So I may have both 1 & 2 then? There not being enough detectableantibodies for the HSV 2 would indicate, there for that I was recently infected with it as the swab results indicated?

[mr_hopp]

It's unfortunately not as cut and dry as that since the IGG test isn't reliable. It gives so many false negatives/positives. The only blood test out there that is truly reliable is the Western Blot — that's the gold standard. If a swab test tells you that you have HSV2 and the Western Blot doesn't pick up enough antibodies, then it's safe to assume it's a recent infection.

[DonnaItaliana]

Ok, so I am suspecting that this is a recent infection of HSV 2 that the swabs picked up on so if this is the case, the guy that gave it to me was either 1) unaware that he had it or 2) lying and knew that he had (I later found out that he has a reputation of juggling women and he had recently been with someone else weeks before me) so my money would be on hypothesis number 2.

[Parsley]

It's unfortunately not as cut and dry as that since the IGG test isn't reliable. It gives so many false negatives/positives. The only blood test out there that is truly reliable is the Western Blot — that's the gold standard. If a swab test tells you that you have HSV2 and the Western Blot doesn't pick up enough antibodies, then it's safe to assume it's a recent infection.

 

 

Would you suggest a WB test to be sure? My IgG test was pos for both 1&2 with my value for 2 being a 12. My husband of 20 years just tested neg. I have had no outbreaks of hsv2 that I am aware of but have had cold sores now and then.

 

[optimist]

@Parsley My understanding is that results beyond 3.5 are very, very rarely false positives. I think Terri Warren said that in 35 years of running her clinic, she saw two exceptions and they were both around 4.5.

[Parsley]

Kind of what I figured.