I went to an infectious disease doctor to get a type specific blood test to determine if i have type 1 or 2. I have been reading on this board that there is an igg test and an igm test. What is the differnce between the two and what test do the labs usually perform. Also, the reason I am going to see if i have type 2 is because I have been having this nagging irritation on the tip of my penis. It doesnt burn when i urinate but its been irritated for a few months. Thanks for any thoughts!

Hi Ethan,

I'm not a health professional and I don't pretend to understand the IgG or IgM tests completely, but I'll relay what information I was able to collect from various sites. They are both antibodies produced when the body fights off the HSV viruses. The IgM canNOT be distinguished between types and tests for it are therefore considered pretty useless. Tests for IgG CAN detect between HSV-1 and HSV-2 antibodies and are therefore the ones to get.

I think which tests are available depends on the lab, as some labs will stock the kits of some but possibly not others. Even your doctor might not know which is available at a given lab, so if you have a particular one in mind you should probably check with the lab first and then find out if the doc has what s/he needs.

I understand that the "gold standard" of blood tests is the Western Blot, which can be rather expensive if you're paying out of pocket for it, but it's considered the most accurate. There is also the HerpeSelect tests -- the ELISA Kit tests for one OR the other type, and the Immunoblot Kit tests for both. HerpeSelect is apparently cheaper and just as accurate as the WB for HSV-2 testing.

You should be aware that it can take as long as 12-16 weeks after initial infection for enough antibodies to accumulate to be detected by any blood test. So if you test negative before that time span, there is still a chance you could have it and you should get another test after the 16 week period to be sure. However, a positive result means you do have it.

Hope that helps. Good luck! Let us know how you make out.

TheOneInFour

Hey OneinFour.

Thanks for your timely response. I appreciate it! I have one more question for you or anyone else. The incident that I was worried about involved touching of a girl. I have read that you can still get it if you have a cut or abrasion on your finger. She was tested and she came back negative and I guess i am just paranoid for the reason that a lot of doctors dont know what they are doing in regards to this. My question is if the chances are same for touching compared to genital contact. Also, if i had contacted it through my finger, would I break out there or would it still occur in my genital area. I didnt touch my genitals afterwards in case that helps. I read your earlier post about it staying in the same region. Thanks!

[This message has been edited by ethan416 (edited 03-26-2003).]

Hi Ethan,

No, you won't spontaneously get symptoms in the genital area if you were infected (or even just exposed) via your hands. I don't know what the statistical numbers are (Centers for Disease Control might have them) for herpes locations, but if people on this board are any indication, it's rather rare to get herpes on the hands. OTOH it's common enough to have a separate name: herpetic whitlow.

Strictly speaking, just because your friend tested negative for herpes doesn't mean she can trust the diagnosis if she was exposed to it within the last 16 weeks. Both of you might want to consider being retested after the 16 week mark just to know for sure, if you're still concerned.

Good luck!

TheOneInFour

If, I was exposed or infected through my hand, will it only show on my hand or will it show in the genital region. Confused about that.

Originally posted by ethan416:
If, I was exposed or infected through my hand, will it only show on my hand or will it show in the genital region. Confused about that.

The short answer is no, you won't get symptoms on your genitals. You would only get symptoms on your hand (and possibly some of your arm).

The long answer is that if you have it on your hand, you could possibly *transfer it* to your genitals by touching there when your hand is shedding the virus, but that's the only way you could get symptoms on your genitals from your hand infection.

Is that a bit clearer? Say so if it's not. http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

TheOneInFour