pregnant, HIV test "indeterminate"

[stargazerlily]

Today my OB told me the HIV test in my OB bloodwork screen came back as "indeterminate".  They took another blood sample and are doing an HIV-1 Proviral DNA test.  I am not sure what kind of HIV test was done originally.

Does this happen very often?  I had HIV tests with my first two pregnancies and one for life insurance a few yrs ago - all were negative.  Also, I gave blood back in spring and was not flagged for any problems.

I have been married and faithful for 13 years.  My husband says he has not been unfaithful and I have never suspected it.  Over the summer, I did suffer from some chronic yeast infections and cervical swelling (my doctor did a cervical biopsy, which was negative).  Since I've been pregnant, the yeast is not bothering me.  Do you think I really have picked up HIV?  I am 40 yrs old and don't even know anyone who has HIV.

[stargazerlily]

I was seeing the nurse practitioner for the yeast.  She seemed appalled that the yeast infections kept coming back and that I wasn't getting much relief from the medications.  She didn't know what else to do for me.  I asked her about HIV because it was mentioned in the literature accompanying one of the meds (tetraconazole?  or something like that), but she said if it was due to HIV, it would have been a much worse case of yeast.  She told me to take acidophilous, and I got something at the health food store called Femadophilous (sp?).

The OBGYN was more interested in the cervical swelling and thought I had HPV, but it was negative for that.  I read that HIV can cause lesions that look like HSV (which my GP thought I had, but the test for that was negative).  I had the same yeast / cervical swelling problem back in 2004 during a period of great stress.  That is confusing to me, because my OB acted like she thought I might have just recently been infected with HIV, which is why the test would have been indeterminate.  

[regularjoey]

This is almost certainly a false positive result, which is not uncommon for pregnant women, nothing to worry about.  Follow through with all the testing that doctors are suggesting, but don't lose sleep over it.

[regularjoey]

I was wondering if you were on any antibiotics before your Candida problem began?

[stargazerlily]

No, no known exposure.  That is what confuses me - the doctor seemed like she thought it would have had to have been a recent infection.  I don't want to have HIV anyway, but especially not while being pregnant.  Thanks for your responses.

[stargazerlily]

No, no antibiotics.  I thought the yeast would get worse with pregnancy, but instead it cleared up, weird.  Thank you for your response, also.

[regularjoey]

There you go then.  Antibiotics are known to cause long-lasting yeast infections.  I bet that is what your problem is...

[regularjoey]

Your doctor is correct.  The only chance that you have HIV is if your husband has contracted it (via an extramarital affair) and passed it to you recently.  If he has been faithful then there is no chance at all.  The doctor will do other blood tests for just to be 110% sure, since you are pregnant - (and because a doctor can not ever trust what a patient says - people lie, cheat etc.).  In the meantime, don't worry - false positives are not uncommon, especially during pregnancy.  You can also have your husband checked out for HIV - a rapid test will give him an answer in less than an hour.  If he is negative you can be absolutely sure that so are you.

[stargazerlily]

You're right, the PCR DNA test was negative so the doctor says we don't have to do any more testing.  Just FYI, in case anyone else asks about a reactive EIA / indeterminate Western blot as part of an OB screen.  Thanks.