How does the blood test work?

[godofdogs60]

Supposing many signs point to rare anual light fever pimples, or to say herpes pimples outbreaks. But that these signs are a bit conflicting general knowledge I am given, for instance, I may get 5 or 6 very little pimples around my face but not necessarily around my lips, and that, at the same time as little pimples maybe 2 or 3 on the genitals.

1st question: Is it possible to get a blood test for hsv1 or hsv2 or other types of skin virus simply by getting a normal appointment at an std clinic or is this something that only gives relevant results depending on if the virus is curently active in the body (a certain amount of time after or during an outbreak)? Personnaly, having a positive or negetive result is not of importance to me since I guess you can't ignore pimples on genitals, no matter what they are, or how rarely they are present. But still, if ever I have to talk to a partner about it, I guess it would be usefull to know if it is hsv1, hsv2 or both.

2nd question: What is the actual benefit of knowing that, if I already plan on acting as if I had both, for protection purposes. (And also because I have a doctor that visualy said it's probably herpes so I already have available prescriptions in case I get that typical energy drain I seem to have noticed before the last time it happened). I mean, is it less worse if it turns out you have hsv1 instead of hsv2? Or does it change anything if blood tests come out negetive for both?

(I guess when I say 'is it less worse', what I mean is should it be less of a worry for accidently propagating it to a knowing partner? or propagating to new parts of the body? Cause when I do get those, they are so light, people sometimes try to tell me it's just a normal pimple, so I don't have to deal with pain or much embarassement. But I want to be responsible and make sure I don't give anything to a loved one, and at the same time, I don't want to over worry and be paranoiac... For exemple, I seem to have an outbreak now on all the regions I mentionned above, for sure, I would chose abstinence if I had a sexual partner at this time, but lets say I'm on a date, I wonder if the 2 very little pimple located maybe 1/3 of an inch above my lip corner should restrain me from kissing.)

Thanks a lot in advance
I know this is a medical help forum, but you're anwser will most likely be of help for dating :)

[godofdogs60]

Realy cheap soap from costco... thanks... but is it possible to have acnee on penis? And I'm circumsized, and on the part where I am stiched (operation was from a realy young age), I get a few pimples sometimes, some of them even left bumps that wont go away. They can't be popped. One morning, out of the blue, I would attempt to masturbate and all of a sudden I can't cause it burns, I look in the light, and it's because of those pimples (2 or 3 new ones, one right under the uretra, under the skin that seems to go from the stiches section to sort of inside the bottom of the uretra). Then I go OMG, that *** again, and like a chain reaction, a wake up finding more weirds zits on my face (unlike normal zits) everytime I wake up.

With all this, do you still think it's only acnee, and I know I'm suppose to stick to one question only but the other sub question is: would this "only acnee" diagnosis only be valid if I tested negetive in blood tests for the virus (some sort of test which would give me the truth no matter when I took it relativly to an outbreak)????

Comment: I do give validity to the acnee theory but I just need to be responsible for my future partner, that's what this is all about, I couldn't care less about myself in this situation. But the thing about sex is I can always wear protection, but then everytime I've had sex with a girlfriend for the first time, they've wanted to give me oral sex, (perhaps since I'm circumsized), and no one does this with a condom without arounding std suspicions. So I've decided that I can't even have sex for that reason, at least not before I have an std discussion with a future partner. So I need to know how to get clear diagnosis, before I start freaking someone out for nothing.

[gracefromHHP]

It really just sounds like acne for the most part.  You won't have herpes ob's on that many parts of your body.  

What kind of soap do you use?

grace

[godofdogs60]

I have acnee, that I get, I found ways to treat it with normal cream when I do get a little zit, and I know it's acnee just by the way I can "pop-it". But sometimes, I get weird pimples that don't realy "pop" like a zit, and at weird places, from ear lobes, to chest, to lip, to eye browes and even genitals. When I do get those, I tend to stress a bit cause they all come at the same time, it's weird, I won't even describe them because no matter what I would say, opinions would range from "could be hepes", "could be stress related pimples", "could be just bacteria that I spread through those parts with my hands or nails", "could be a mix of manythings"... I don't know...

I live in canada and I don't know what to do to get the diagnosis... IDEALY, if only I had an appointment for a dermatologist (a good one, cause some are so buisy they seem to go super fast and not explain anything and just look at a pimple for 5 seconds and then send you away) about 2 or 3 days ago, I could have shown him everything, the pimples on my genitals, on my face, near my lips, the acnee on my back, and maybe one or two acnee pimples on my face. In other words, he would have been able to see "the whole package" and make each diagnosis individualy...

But that is not possible, since I can never predict when all these issues will be visible on my skin since some outbreaks are similar to herpes outbreaks in the way that they are rare and unpredictable. I do know though that when I do get something weird, the rest usualy comes within the next few days (some sort of chain reaction maybe caused by stress)...

So what do you suggest I do to get all my diagnosis at the same time?

[gracefromHHP]

If you read our read before posting post on this forum, you'll see that we request you just keep all your questions in 1 post to make it easier for us. It gets confusing if you have multiple posts - thanks! Let's stick to this one since it's the most complete.


You obviously are concerned about genital and oral herpes but aren't having typical symptoms according to your posts.  You need to wait 4 months after the last time you had sex and then ask for a type specific herpes igg blood test. Getting this done isn't always easy in canada so be sure they are ordering the right test.  You do not want the igm test and you do not want the non-type specific test that can't tell the difference between hsv1 and hsv2.

Even the best medical providers who see herpes a lot, still visually misdiagnose something as being herpes when it's not 1/3 of the time according to one study.  Someone telling you it's probably herpes isn't good enough. You need to follow up on that with testing to confirm what is going on.  If someone told you it was probably cancer - would you just say ok and go home and not follow up on it?  You and any potential partners can't make educated decisions about how to deal with this until you know for sure that you have herpes and for sure that the symptoms you think might be herpes, really are.  What you are describing doesn't really sound like it's herpes going on in either location so this is well worth further follow up.

grace

[godofdogs60]

one thing I'd like to add: the medical system in quebec makes it almost impossible to ever get to show an outbreak to a dermatologist... If you were to advide is, I could always find a way, but those doctors are usualy on waiting lists or 4 months or more here.