Went to derm today with some skin irritation/pain in lower back. He pretty definitively confirmed it looked like shingles, *not* HSV1/2. (I asked him about 500 times, and I trust this derm). Regardless, I asked him to do a swab/culture for HSV1/2 on the area.

So my questions:
1. Derm said there wasn't a chance of a false positive HSV1/2 on. the swab if what I'm dealing with is indeed shingles/zoster. True?

2. I was just about to get the HSV1/2 IgG test again for peace of mind. If I am indeed having a shingles-related issue, would this at all throw off the IgG results for HSV1/2, or no worries there? (My assumption is that I've had the zoster virus since childhood, so it's been in my system all the other times I've gotten the HSV IgG test, all negative.)

I realize the Western Blot is gold standard, etc, but for sake of my own anxiety I would rather not start expanding out into additional tests right at this moment :)

Thanks!

Shingles would not impact HSV testing, no.  But I'm glad you are aware of the possibility for false positives on the IgG HSV 2 test.

Terri

I realize they can present similarly but he did seem quite confident based on specific presentation and he also spelled out specific reasons he thought this was def shingles and not hsv2 based on appearance location and so on. 

Re false positives on hsv2 igg...I have had this test done prob 6 or 7 times in my life. Always unequivocally negative. Given this would it be less likely that I'd suddenly experience a false positive?

terri

My issue is that I have severe OCD and just trying to avoid panicking for 4 months until I can more or less trust IgG results. 

Realize visual ID can be tough bit I'm hoping that the docs confidence in it being shingles plus a hopefully negative HSV1/2 swab will be enough to relax a bit :)

Terri

Beating a dead horse here, but based on dermatologist confidence that it presented as shingles not HSV, and location (lower back only, and only on one side of body), might not the location also suggest shingles? (No history of receptive anal sex for me).

Terri