I december 2018 I did unprotected oral sex to a guy and about 10 days later I had what I could thibk was a cold sore in my upper lip. In the beginning I thought it was a pimple, but it was hard and tingling. I put some toothpaste and it encapsulated, like it burned aittle the skin around it and the I put some Abreva and in a couple of days it was gone. The other stages of a cold sore did no happen, there was no pus nor crust. 

Days later, I did the work up for HSV IGM and the results were equivocal. The IGG results were negative. I waited a week and repeat the IGM, and the results came positive. I did not take the meds as the doctor told me to in case another cold sore came up. The guy with whom I was newly intimate did the IGG testing and came back negative. 

In april 2019, having passed 4 months, I did the work up for the IGG antibodies, because I wanted to know which type I had. And it was negative. Now, in july, 20 months after the exposure, I repeated both work ups, IGM and IGG. The IGG results were negative again, but the results for the IGM are positive high of 4.64. Meaning, the IGM antibodies hasn't converted to IGG antibodies. 

A new generalist doctor that I'm seeing, told me that is because I didn't take the antiviral meds in the beginning. She has prescribed Zovirax 800 for 3 months, two times a day. At the end of that period I have to repeat the testing. In all of the information I have researched, never have I read that the meds are necessary for the change or conversion of the antibodies from IGM to IGG. 

Tomorrow I am going to a gynecologist hoping she can led light in this. I have read about the problems with the IGM testing but on my own.  But my question would be if the meds are necessary for the conversion of the antibodies? My WBC is low at 4.24, could that mean my body don-t have thr capacity to fight the virus and becaise of that the IGG come back negative? Could it be a cross result? As a litll

You are misinterpreting the results of your testing.  First of all, the IgM is a terrible test and the CDC says to never use it to try to sort out a herpes diagnosis as it has many many false positives.  Not taking the antiviral medicine at your first symptoms has absolutely nothing to do with why your IgG is negative and your IgM is positive.  Zero.  They are unrelated.

The IgG test for HSV 1 misses 30% of HSV 1 infections compared to the gold standard herpes antibody test, the western blot.  So it is possible that you have HSV 1 and the IgG test is missing it (though this has nothing to do with the IgM issue).

I doubt that your white cell count has anything at all to do with this.

If you want to know if you have HSV, you could get the herpes western blot from the University of Washington.  Alternatively, you could wait and see if you get another outbreak and have that swab tested immediately.  The western blot is NOT available from big labs like Quest or LabCorp, it is available only through the University of Washington but you can order the kit from them and your doctor could draw, spin and ship the blood.  If they won't or can't do that, I can help you get it.

Terri

Should I take the Zovirax prescribed to me if I'm going to be doing the Washington Blot test? 

What percentage misses the IgG HSV 2 test? Can I understand it is definitely not HSV 2 ?

Thank you. 

If you are going to take the western blot, I think you should consider NOT taking antiviral medicine for now.  The IgG test misses 8% of HSV 2 infections.

I can work with you to obtain the blot at westoverheights.com.  Click on the purple box and it will take you to the evisit site to register for a telehealth conversation.

Terri