Unique Swab Vs Blood Result

[doublewhammy145]

New here. 4 months ago I got an genital outbreak and was culture tested (immunoperosidase?) and typed with BOTH HSV 1 and 2.  My new partner at the time, had oral hsv1 and had an outbreak slightly after the first and only time we had sex.  Blood work for her found only type 1, and still did 3 months after.  So, I thought I might have had it asymptomatically previous to her, and the ghsv1 infection "brought it out."

My new doctor said that he thought my culture results were unusual and I got IgG blood tests at 2, 3 AND 4 months after. Much to my surprise, the tests said I had HSV1 but NOT HSV2.  HSV1 first test 1.77, second test 1.89. third 1.83 and HSV2 >.9 on all.  As I said, I figured I might have had an asymptomatic infection before the last girl, but the low numbers seem to say that's not the case.

I thought that cultures were infallible, but now I'm wondering since it's been that long and I haven't showed any detection of HSV2 antibodies, but definitely HSV1 (so I figured HSV2 should be showing up if 1 is).  The person I was with before this last would have been another 3 weeks before that, giving my body even longer to build antibodies (though that would still mean in the same month I got both types of Herpes while using condoms except for oral sex, and that I got gHSV1 after an gHSV2 infection, which I thought was rare).  I don't want to believe in false hope, but obviously I'd much prefer ghsv1 only to BOTH types on my genitals, and my doctor is a specialist and is convinced it's ghsv1.

A) Could my initial swab be innacurate? I read its supposed to be the absolute, and false positives are extremely rare when there is NO virus, but what about for TYPED results that detect BOTH when only 1 kind is suspected? How does the typing accuracy compare to that of repeated IgG tests?

B) What about my partner's blood results missing type 2 ? false negatives happen, but if that was the case that would mean I caught 2 types of H from ONE sexual encounter.

C) At what point can I trust the blood work? I wouldn't believe it if it hadn't been so long and that the circumstances so odd otherwise, and my doctor's confidence that the blood results this far out confirm what he thought were unusual culture results.

I have been on good terms with this girl, though I have not had sex in anyway since that last time, so we want to know if we have the same type, and I want to know when is long enough to trust the repeated blood tests. Again, it would be have been 3-4 month's since my only outbreak (if I'd had another, i'd obviously culture it), and even longer since a previous partner.

Any takers?

[doublewhammy145]

*Sigh of relief*
Thanks, I just want to be confident.

[gracefromHHP]

you can have both hsv1 and hsv2 genitally but if I recall it's something like less than 5% of folks with genital herpes have them both.  typically it would be having hsv1 genitally first and then contracting hsv2 and the newly acquired hsv2 infection triggering shedding of hsv1 to be detected on the culture.

I totally agree with your provider that the initial culture results were suspicious and repeated igg blood testing from both you and your partner are negative for hsv2 so no real reason to think you do have hsv2.  Should you get a return of genital symptoms, be all means be seen and get them cultured and typed again - if you do have hsv2 from a prior partner and it's not being detected on blood tests, it would be your hsv2 that would be reoccurring most often, not both.  Not likely that you do have hsv2 though.

feel free to pay to post to Terri Warren, our herpes expert here on medhelp too.

grace

[doublewhammy145]

Also, I'm a healthy man in my early 30's. Never had a cold sore to my knowledge.