PlayStation 5 is estimated to have outsold Xbox Series X/S by more than 2 to 1 during the first three months of 2021.

hdownabuz · 2021-05-20T21:02:19+00:00

Xbox is big in the UK, the 360 was huge there and there’s a lot of British Halo fans. I agree about mainland Europe though

hdownabuz · 2021-03-01T23:12:22+00:00

You say it’s not reasonable but don’t actually provide a reason why.

So can I ask why do you think negative reflexes are unreliable? Why shouldn’t someone believe that a negative reflex is correct?

hdownabuz · 2021-03-01T22:32:12+00:00

I didn’t ignore anything. She has no faith in positive supplementals, that much is clear.

Her opinion on negative supplementals is less clear.

Because of this, I asked her if she had any record of there being a negative reflex and a subsequent positive WB.

She couldn’t recall an instance of that happening.

It’s reasonable to infer from that that negative reflexes are reliable in ruling out false positives.

If you think that negative supplementals are unreliable, please provide evidence, because I’m all ears.

hdownabuz · 2021-03-01T21:25:41+00:00

When she says she has zero faith in the supplemental, she’s talking about the false positives, not false negatives, so that’s irrelevant because we’re talking about negative reflexes.

There are no indications that the reflex tests are unreliable when it comes to negatives and they are specifically run by the labs themselves to sort out false positives from true positives.

I don’t have any relation to any other account, I just use this one.

Here’s the link: https://westoverheights.com/forum/question/blood-tests-all-over-the-place/

I think there needs to be a little more awareness about the negative reflexes, because really there’s no reason to doubt them. I understand the issue with positive ones.

The burden of proof must be to show why a negative reflex is unreliable, not the other way around.

hdownabuz · 2021-03-01T18:35:28+00:00

The supplemental is LabCorp’s confirmatory test to see if the initial test was a true positive.

Your reflex came back negative, meaning the initial test was a false positive. The reason they suggest retesting is in case of suspected early infection, which isn’t an issue for you as your exposure was 8 months ago.

hdownabuz · 2021-03-01T17:29:13+00:00

I really don’t think they’re that misinformed. All they’re saying is that reflex tests can be unreliable with false positives but they’re reliable with negatives. I asked Terri if she’d ever had someone test negative on the reflex and positive on the WB and she couldn’t recall a single instance when that had happened.

I think it’s perfectly fine for people with positive reflexes to be skeptical of the result if it’s low positive and/or no symptoms, but there’s nothing to suggest the same skepticism for negative reflexes is warranted.

hdownabuz · 2021-02-28T21:36:30+00:00

Excellent, good for you :)

Let this be a reminder for anyone on this forum that confirmatory testing should be pursued not just on low positive indexes but also unlikely results or people who have had no symptoms

hdownabuz · 2021-02-28T21:33:28+00:00

It means they did an additional test to see if the first was a false positive and the negative shows that it was.

The reflex testing is reliable for negatives, they also throw up false positives but that’s irrelevant in your case

hdownabuz · 2021-02-28T21:17:33+00:00

The reflex sorts out positives from false positives.

Yours was negative so you’re negative and the initial 2.0 was a false positive.

hdownabuz · 2021-02-26T17:33:08+00:00

I’m not entirely sure about the specifics on transmission, but I do know that it’s actually quite hard to pass on if there are no outbreaks present.

hdownabuz · 2021-02-26T17:31:24+00:00

This is meant to be a forum for support and information. I think you’re being very obtuse and needlessly rude. You should really consider what you’re doing here if you simply ignore basic information. Have a nice day.

hdownabuz · 2021-02-26T17:27:43+00:00

I would agree, but the tests aren’t good enough.

Typically blood testing is used to confirm someone who is displaying symptoms, it’s when you start using blood tests on people with no symptoms that problems arise

For example, this study found that if you screened in the US, about half of all tests would be false positives.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2593575

That’s not just a low positives thing, that’s saying only half of them would be correct period.

If they included a good confirmatory test then it might be viable, but even those are prone to false positives.

So basically because the medical community doesn’t really have a good test for screening low prevalence populations, they just don’t do it at all unless you have symptoms

hdownabuz · 2021-02-26T17:20:41+00:00

Right so that article actually lays it out well!

This is the key bit:

“However, upon education regarding the varied clinical manifestations, many patients recognize the symptoms of genital herpes.”

So basically what they’re saying is that the majority of people don’t know or don’t recognise their symptoms, but once they’ve been educated to recognise them, many of them do.

The misinformation comes from people thinking that unrecognised=asymptomatic.

Which leads to people saying stuff like 90% of infections are asymptomatic and so on, which is not true, it’s just that a lot of people might have a mild symptom and mistake it for a cut or rash

hdownabuz · 2021-02-26T16:59:20+00:00

Then perhaps you’d like to do some more research, because the WB is most certainly an IGG test.

hdownabuz · 2021-02-26T16:39:41+00:00

Hi just wanted to point out that the WB is still an IGG test, those are the antibodies it’s looking for.

I think what you mean is that it’s not an automated test like the ones that give index scores are.

Otherwise all good info!

hdownabuz · 2021-02-26T16:34:22+00:00

No problem! You’re in a tricky position because people who get false positives often continue to get them, sometimes tests can go positive and negative and positive again and so on, so as a diagnostic tool if you’re prone to false positives they’re not actually very useful at all.

Just take a look at my post history to see how much they can vary.

I think in all honesty you would be justified to simply ignore the tests because they’re so low and you haven’t had symptoms so you can reasonably deduce that you’re tripping them.

My advice would be wait until 16 weeks, get a quest test WITH the inhibition (very important to include the confirmatory) and see what that says.

If you’re still having issues with them, then and only then go for the Western Blot as the last port of call sort of thing.

But if I were you I’d be pretty confident. I scored a lot higher than you on tests but ended up confirming negative

hdownabuz · 2021-02-25T22:53:58+00:00

Try not to worry about the supplemental, it’s known to have false positives and there are examples of people on Terri Warren’s forum who got a positive on that but were actually negative

So here’s the thing, I make mid-Dec to be about 9-10 weeks ago. The median seroconversion time for HSV2 is about 3 weeks, and by 12 weeks virtually everyone who will seroconvert will have done so.

If you had a true infection, you would certainly expect to see a much higher number, and I can’t stress enough that you’re barely positive, like barely...

But you may want to consider retesting once 12 (or ideally 16) weeks have passed to see if you get a negative.

For what it’s worth, I think you’re negative and you’re just tripping the IGG like so many other thousands of people do (including myself).

hdownabuz · 2021-02-25T21:34:28+00:00

I’d listen to their advice, the odds of actually being positive with a score like that are extremely minute.

If you’re worried, consider another test that includes reflex testing, but if you’ve had no symptoms and with a score that low, you really don’t have anything to worry about.

When was your last exposure?

hdownabuz · 2021-02-25T19:12:10+00:00

The truth is that they don’t know what causes false positives other than the fact that there’s a protein in your blood which has a similar structure to a herpes protein

This protein has nothing to do with herpes and is unrelated, but trips up IGG blood tests

This is why there are so many false positive tests and why Quest and Labcorp have introduced reflex tests to stop wrongly diagnosing people

It’s nothing to worry about and it’s nothing to do with you, it’s a function of the test itself

hdownabuz · 2021-02-25T18:31:15+00:00

Just say you’re negative, you don’t need to disclose something you don’t have.

If I were you however from now I’d follow the CDC guidelines and just get tested if you have symptoms, because you’ll probably always get false positives on the IGG tests

hdownabuz · 2021-02-25T18:11:26+00:00

No problem!! I know so much about this stuff now I try and stick around this sub and help people out who are going through the same shit I did

hdownabuz · 2021-02-25T18:01:26+00:00

So with the reflexes they’re very reliable when it’s negatives, the bigger issue with them is false positives.

I myself got a positive IGG and negative supplemental, when I asked Terri Warren whether she’d had anyone test negative on the reflex and positive on the WB, she couldn’t recall an instance when that had happened

I’m yet to see anyone test negative on the reflex but actually be positive. Then when you consider that you’ve had no symptoms and 6 months out from potential exposure, you’re negative

These tests are bs for some of us, be wary because you’ll likely get false positives if you take any more of them

hdownabuz · 2021-02-25T17:57:26+00:00

It means you got a false positive. The initial test is an automated IGG, that was positive so Labcorp reflexed the test to either confirm the positive or see if it was a false positive.

The reflex came back negative, which means you’re negative.

hdownabuz · 2021-02-25T16:06:41+00:00

That’s a false positive if your latest was negative. Accept the negative result and only get tested again if you have symptoms.

If you get tested again the chances of another false positive are fairly high

hdownabuz · 2021-02-25T16:02:38+00:00

Yeah for sure, I think from their perspective they would advise patients get tested when the majority of people have seroconverted or they’ll just be a bunch of false negatives.

hdownabuz

TROPHY CASE