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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Herpes / May 2004I'd rather have the full blown thing...
So this is silly, but really, I wish I just HAD the diseases for gods sake... instead I 'may' have it which just plane sucks to all hell. Ya see, the first problem is, I have depression and am a hypochondriac. Well, I 'think' I'm a hypochondriac... but we hypochondriacs can never be too sure. When I was younger and stupider (about 5 to 7 years ago) I got drunk and slept around a lot. Always protected... but now that I'm older and less stupid I know that don't mean a damned thing. Well, during that time I developed "pimples" down on my abdomen. No pain or other symptoms but being who I am I was horrified and ran to the doctor who said "If you had an STD you would KNOW it." (he was a moron I know now) A few months later I went in for the standard college "STD testing" that I know covered AIDS but I dunno what else it covered. I was clean they said. Well, about a year later it happened again... same pimples. I went to a different doctor... this one a dermatologist... a GIRL doctor for Gods sake... they should tell you this stuff on the phone... anyway, she looked and said I had "Foliculitous" or an infected hair follicle. She said I probably scratched down there and caused the infection. 2 years after that it happened again... I went to a Very good doctor at the best clinic in my state. I got all brave, walked strait in and I said "I think it's Herpes or warts" she said "No... it's just dead skin that doesn't fall off. Older people get it alot." Then she zapped me with nitrogen (which was a lot worse than the bumps themselves) and I left. After that visit I finally had my mind convinced that I was fine. Well, it happened again... which wouldn't be so bad... The doctor said it would happen throughout my life... it was just a skin problem. But this time there were mild flue symptoms the day before they popped up. That was enough to drive me into a hypochondriac static loop for the past week. I either have a very mild version of the disease or I'm a lunatic. Either way I'm not very happy about the situation and doubt I'll ever date again. Yes I know you guys date and what not... but lunatics don't. And I'm not about to go to the doctor again and find out I'm clean... cause I'll just convince myself I'm not anyway... and it'll just prove I'm a lunatic. Which is even worse than having a perma-std. So anyway, that's my silly story. Life's a son of a bitch ain't it? >I'm not >about to go to the doctor again and find out I'm clean... cause I'll just >convince myself I'm not anyway... If you're not having a visible outbreak when you go to a doctor (or even if you're having one that looks like something else), there's no way a doctor can know whether you have herpes or not just by looking at it. You've GOT to have a blood test. And not just any blood test will do. Many of the older ones are inaccurate and/or won't distinguish between types. And by the way, a standard STD panel seldom includes Herpes in it's series of tests, I don't know why. But when they told you you were "clean", maybe you should have asked EXACTLY which tests were run. I doubt Herpes was included. Anyhow, here's a link to some up to date info on testing; http://www.herpesdiagnosis.com/blood.html M2 Do they have a new test or something? Last time I went they were still saying you needed 'open blisters' to do an acurate test. And I've never had them. I'm talking about maybe 4 small pimple sized bumps at the most. >Do they have a new test or something? Last time I went they were still >saying you needed 'open blisters' to do an acurate test. And I've never had >them. I'm talking about maybe 4 small pimple sized bumps at the most. You need blisters to do a culture test, but all you need to do a blood test is twelve to sixteen weeks from the time of your initial infection. It can take that long for the body to produce the anti-herpes antibodies that the blood tests look for. There are a few different blood tests. For any of them your doc needs to take a small vial of your blood. There *was* a blood test that could diagnose HSV2 (not HSV1) with only a few drops of blood but last I heard it was taken off the market (due to financial difficulties at the company.) I'm jumping around here, but the great thing about cultures (using a swab of material taken from an active lesion) is that the type of the virus (HSV1 vs HSV2) can be rather accurately determined. Until relatively recently, the blood tests, while good for saying "herpes", were not so good for saying "HSV1" or "HSV2". Fortunately that has changed, but there are still a few old style blood tests in stock at clinics and hospitals, and a lot of doctors who don't know about the newer tests, so it's a good idea if you go into see your doc armed with a little information. What you need to ask your doc for is a "type specific HSV antibody" test. If you want the best test, and don't mind waiting a couple of weeks for results, and can talk your doc into it, you want to order the Western Blot for HSV from the University of Washington in Seattle. You have to request a test kit from them, mail your blood off, and wait for results, but it's accurate and it's type specific. This will tell you more: http://depts.washington.edu/rspvirus/HerpesWesternBlot.htm ... and this will tell you even more: http://www.racoon.com/herpes/WB_test.htm Another good test is the HerpeSelect, with info here: http://www.herpesalliance.org/diagnostics.htm A quite excellent herpes testing page, complete with info on tests that are *not* recommended is here: http://www.herpesdiagnosis.com/blood.html Hope that helps, and feel free to ask more. Mike Well, I KNOW I have varrious types of HSV. I had shingles as a child and I've also had oral cold sores since I was young. So I'd deffinately test positive for HSV. Wether I got the kind that requires you to have an embaressing talk with future girlfriends is the qusetion. To be honest, I'd just not date anymore. My ego wouldn't alow me to do it. I'd shreak in terror and run out of the room. So are you saying, that since it's been like 5 years since I acted like a "ho" I could go in at any time, wether I got the 'pimples' or not, and take this test and find out? God, mom was right, I shoulda stayed in church! lol > >Do they have a new test or something? Last time I went they were still > >saying you needed 'open blisters' to do an acurate test. And I've never had [quoted text clipped - 47 lines] > > Mike First of all, Shingles is a reactivation of the chicken pox virus, so you don't actually have to count that one. Since you have cold sores, then you will test positive for (most likely) type 1 herpes so a blood test won't be the best idea. You can run the test anyway and see if type 2 shows up. If it does, then you can assume that you have type 2 genitally. But, if you test positive for type 1, it really won't tell you if you have it genitally. So, it's up to you. But, to answer your question, yes, you can have a blood test anytime as long as there has been 12 to 16 weeks since exposure. No symptoms, no blisters, etc. By the way, you still need to have an embarrassing talk with a girlfriend because you can pass your oral herpes to someone's genitals during oral sex. ar > Well, I KNOW I have varrious types of HSV. I had shingles as a child and > I've also had oral cold sores since I was young. So I'd deffinately test [quoted text clipped - 61 lines] > > > > Mike Yea, but it's a hell of a lot easier to say "I get cold sores" than to say "I have genital herpes" and yes, I've told every girlfriend I've ever had that I get cold sores before I even kiss them. I usually say something like "Oh wait! I had a cold sore a while back, I don't want you to catch it." and they usually just laugh at me. as soon as I have insurance again (pretty soon) I'll try and talk my HMO into getting me a test. To be honest, the more I read about this, the more I think I probably got type 1 down there. The symptoms are extreamly mild and several of my ex-girl friends were into oral sex so it's possible I just gave it to myself... lol The irony! The problem is I'll never be able to rule it out. I can rule out type 2 with a test, but not type 1. I thought the "I have herpes" talk would be bad, but the "I tested negative but I still might have it" talk would be way worse! why the f.ck haven't they cured this yet? We can send a cruise misle through a chimny from 1/2 way around the world but we haven't figured out how to keep the fammilly jewels safe? Where are our prioritys?!?!? By the way, I just looked it up. Shingles is the re-activisation of chickenpox virus. but chickenpox is a form of Herpes. So they are both caused by the herpes virus. http://my.webmd.com/hw/health_guide_atoz/stc123689.asp?navbar=hw75435 Shnazy huh? HPV is even worse... think of an STD that could give you cancer... god, that's lame. 80% of the Cervical cancer cases in the US are caused by the HPV virus. Hi Pain, yeah, we already knew that here about the chicken pox virus. :) But as mentioned above, it isn't a herpes simplex virus - std - so we don't bother with it except to answer a few shingles questions every now and then. You don't have to inform your potential partners that you have it. Yes, many of us here have HPV as well. Actually, you could have it too. There just isn't a reliable test for it. ar > By the way, I just looked it up. Shingles is the re-activisation of > chickenpox virus. but chickenpox is a form of Herpes. So they are both [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > that's lame. > 80% of the Cervical cancer cases in the US are caused by the HPV virus. > By the way, I just looked it up. Shingles is the re-activisation of > chickenpox virus. but chickenpox is a form of Herpes. So they are both > caused by the herpes virus. A herpesvirus yes, The Herpes Virus, no. Blurring the distinction because there are similarities over simplifies and to make the leap you do you have to blur the vital distinction between disease and disease causing agent (ie because herpes zoster and genital herpes have clinical similarities then HSV and VZV are forms of each other). Varicella and Herpes Simplex viruses are not 'forms' of each other they are distinct if related viruses. The similarities are useable - hence we have drugs that work on 3 or more herpesviruses that get licensed. However the main requirement on that line is to work on HSV1 AND HSV2 due to the blurring of the lines between their traditional locations making it non-viable for a drug to be used on clinical diagnosis (IIRC brivudin failed on this one) Tim -- When playing rugby, its not the winning that counts, but the taking apart ICQ: 5178568 >Well, I KNOW I have varrious types of HSV. I had shingles as a child and Technically, shingles is part of the Herpes family, but not the Herpes simplex branch. Shingles is HVZ (Herpes Varicella-Zoster), rather than HSV (Herpes Simplex Virus), but they are related. >I've also had oral cold sores since I was young. So I'd deffinately test >positive for HSV. Wether I got the kind that requires you to have an >embaressing talk with future girlfriends is the qusetion. To be honest, I'd >just not date anymore. My ego wouldn't alow me to do it. I'd shreak in >terror and run out of the room. Whether you have HSV1 or HSV2 genitally, or even orally, you should still be open with your potential sexual partners about it. Most adults already have oral HSV, but most adults don't have HSV1 or HSV2 genitally, and it's only right to let them decide whether they want to risk aquiring which ever one you have. >So are you saying, that since it's been like 5 years since I acted like a >"ho" I could go in at any time, wether I got the 'pimples' or not, and take >this test and find out? Yes. >God, mom was right, I shoulda stayed in church! lol Mom is always right. Take care, Mike > Well, I KNOW I have varrious types of HSV. I had shingles as a child and > I've also had oral cold sores since I was young. So I'd deffinately test > positive for HSV. Technical points - There are two HSV viruses, these days they can be distinguished even in a blood test. Shingles is not an HSV related disease and wont cross react in an HSV test (its caused by Varicella Zoster virus, another herpesvirus but in a different subgrouping). Its the cold sores that would make you HSV positive and very much likely thats HSV 1 not 2. And ouch, shingles as a kid is pretty rare.... > Wether I got the kind that requires you to have an > embaressing talk with future girlfriends is the qusetion. To be honest, I'd Oral herpes requires pretty much the same discussion - 1 in 3 new cases of genital herpes are actually caused by HSV1 and most likely from oral sex. > just not date anymore. My ego wouldn't alow me to do it. I'd shreak in > terror and run out of the room. Well you have about a 70% chance that the HSV1 issue is relevant from the future girlfriend and about a 20% chance (in the US, about 15-18% in Europe) that the HSV2 discussion may be needed from here....the chances she KNOWS that they are relevant are however MUCH smaller....start with the oral herpes (fever blisters/cold sores) issue and work from there. > So are you saying, that since it's been like 5 years since I acted like a > "ho" I could go in at any time, wether I got the 'pimples' or not, and take > this test and find out? Oh yes you can do that. Essentially the herpesviruses unlike most other virus families take up residence in the body. Once you set up immunity you do seem to get pretty frequent rechallenges with HSV. So HSV antibodies should stay pretty high and so 5 years down the line should still reliably show up on a blood test. Tim -- When playing rugby, its not the winning that counts, but the taking apart ICQ: 5178568 > Do they have a new test or something? Last time I went they were still > saying you needed 'open blisters' to do an acurate test. And I've never had Depends on where in the world you are as to what is commonly used. The US is pretty happy to use blood tests in general. The UK as I understand it often doesn't since the blood test cannot tell you absolutely if any set of lesions are herpes or not and Im not sure how many have got themselves licensed in the UK yet - that then means private medicine to get them. They do tell you infection status which you can then use to give a likely diagnosis (ie herpes like lesions on the gential and a blood test positive for HSV2 is pretty good evidence). Cultures of course have a high fail rate which is why blood tests have got some utility. Tim -- When playing rugby, its not the winning that counts, but the taking apart ICQ: 5178568 M2slo2cht writes: >If you're not having a visible outbreak when you go to a doctor (or >even if you're having one that looks like something else), there's no >way a doctor can know whether you have herpes or not just by looking >at it. You've GOT to have a blood test. Just to clarify, the "GOT to" part refers to the "If you're not having a visible outbreak" part. Obviously, a culture is an option if you're having an outbreak, even if it "looks like something else". Just wanted to clear up my ambiguous wording. Another option recently, that I forgot to mention, is a "Series PCR test". It's a bit expensive though and not available everywhere yet. The way I understand it, it's a kit you take home and do your own swab every day for a week or so, then you take it back to the lab and they test the swabs by PCR. Supposedly, the swab can pickup enough HSV, even if it's only shedding subclinically, for the PCR test to detect back at the lab. Like I said though, it's new, it's not available everywhere yet, and it's expensive. Hopefully that'll all change soon. M2 |
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