Herpes or Yeast Infection

[cookiedream]

I will try to be as straight to the point as possible...

For eight years, I had been with the same boyfriend, who was my high school sweetheart and the only person I'd ever slept with. Three months ago we broke up and I started seeing a new guy. One week into my new relationship, we decided to try anal sex for the first time - we were relatively drunk ahah. Two days later, I wake up with my vagina completely swollen, no itchiness, some very ugly but non smelly green discharge; I could barely walk or close my legs and peeing was like having knives come out from the inside of you. I went to three doctors who basically opened my legs and couldn't make anything of it, so they just told me to take pain killers and put baby cream on it (retards).

Two days later, I went to see another doctor, who looked at my vagina and said that the scabs around the area indicated I had vaginal herpes - you can imagine the breakdown I had after that. They gave me Valtrex and more pain killers. Although, once I got home, I decided to take a look for myself and the supposed scabs looked like dried up discharge. I tried taking them off and they came right off, no pain, nothing.

Three days later, Valtrex had done nothing for me and the infection looked like it was just getting worst. I went to a gino, she gave me Canesten to put on my vagina and told me to keep taking the Valtrex. After just one application of Canesten, the infection got a lot better, which led me to start believing that maybe I didn't have herpes after all, but I still decided to go do some blood work just to make sure.

I gave blood practically one week after my infection got better and got the results two weeks after saying that I had tested positive for genital herpes and inconclusive for mouth herpes. Bummer and another major breakdown. So just to make sure who had given it to me, I made my ex boyfriend and my new boyfriend take blood tests. However, they told me that they have never had any herpes outbreaks or symptoms and both of their blood test results came back negative for any sort of herpes - I made sure I saw the test results myself, in my hand.

I'm going to the doctor next month to get another blood test but I just need to ask, is there any possibility that my test results for herpes are wrong? Is it possible that my herpes infection was actually a yeast infection? Do yeast infections get confused with herpes in blood tests? Someone please just ease my mind! (And sorry for the huge post!)

[bobrope45]

If you live in MG, I guess you have Hermes Pardini labs in there, right? They offer a type specific test as far as I know. The names are the ones Grace mentioned - Herpes type 1 IgG and Herpes type 2 IgG.

Good luck and let us know about the results!

[cookiedream]

Thank you Grace

I really appreciate you taking the time to answer so many questions... I've been reading your journal entries in the hope to better understand as much as I can about this...

Shall do the type specific blood test.
All the best x

[gracefromHHP]

had they also tested you for other vaginal infections initially?  green discharge is not due to yeast.

You want type specific tests - you'll get 1 result for hsv1 and 1 for hsv2.  You also only want igg testing done, not igm.

you might want to look to see if there is a herpes support group near you online. they can probably help you better with getting the proper testing in your area.

grace

[cookiedream]

Thank you so much again for replying!

My gyno asked for the combo test... I also didn't find it much help. But I haven't had any lesions since my one and only outbreak in August (if it was an outbreak of herpes... I really want to believe it was just a yeast infection since I never saw any of the usual blisters)

Anyways, if you happen to know the Portuguese names of these tests your are recommending, it would be of so much help! I'm in the area of BH - MG, so I'll do some research to see where would be better to take yet another test - *sigh :(

[bobrope45]

Oh well, I'll be honest to you - you'll have a hard time trying to figure out if you indeed have herpes or not in brazil. lol the testing is outdated and culture and PCR swabs are hard to find. I say that because I'm brazilian.

anyway, the tests you had were combo tests (type I + II), which are useless. If 3-4 months have passed since the episode, try to get a type specific test (HSV1 IgG / HSV2 IgG) - you'll get two separate results. IgM tests are useless, don't waste your money on them. I'm aware that Fleury offers such test, in case you live in a location near SP.

If you get symptoms again, try to find a lab that offers PCR swabs for herpes. They will swab the lesion and try to see if there's active virus there.

[cookiedream]

Hi again! Thank you for replying! Sorry for the late reply back!

I'm posting here my second batch of blood exam results... The first results I seem to have misplaced them so hopefully someone will be able to help me based on my results right now...

I took the blood test in Brazil, but I'll try to translate the results...

HERPESVIRUS SIMPLEX I & II IgG
Method used: Quimioluminescence
Result: 3,4

HERPESVIRUS SIMPLEX I & II IgM
Method used: Quimioluminesce
Result: 0,67

1,10 : Postitive

I hope I made an understandable translation and it would be great if someone could tell me what this means... I've been told so many different things already... I really don't know what to believe anymore :s

Thanks for reading x

[bobrope45]

Yeast will not get mixed up with herpes in a blood test, no.

It would be best if you could get a copy of all blood tests (yours and your partners') and post their actual result here. See if they were IgG or IgM tests and also the number associated to the result (3.4, 0.9, etc.) Then Grace can tell you better what's going on.

Also, tell us when were such blood tests performed (weeks/months after symptoms).