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Panels...why the
distinction?
Everybody wants certainty. Everybody wants to be sure. Everybody
wants to close the case. So, how do you go about selecting the best test
for your situation?
Your exposure history, the time interval from exposure, the presence
or absence of symptoms, your personal emotional and intellectual make
up, the funds you have available for testing, all are important
factors which play a role in deciding what tests to take.
Of all the factors, two are most important:
1) whether or not
you have symptoms. 2) the time of exposure (when do you
think you might have been infected).
If you have symptoms of any sort you should definitely consider
seeing a Physician who will take your history in detail and examine the
area and order appropriate testing. You can, however, while waiting for
your appointment, obtain your testing through us and bring your report
with you at the time of your visit.
We have distinguished our
Panels
according to exposure times of less than 4 months and more than 4
months. We have done this:
1) to offer
you some conclusive answers when urgency to know is
important.
2) to make you aware that some of your questions can
only be
answered after a certain amount of time from the date of exposure.
3) to avoid the
expenses of retesting.
Most of STD tests are antibodies tests
(ELISA methodology) and they look for the presence in your blood of
antibodies for the particular kind of bacterium or virus which is under
scrutiny. The appearance of antibodies in someone's blood (becoming
Seropositive from a prior condition of being Seronegative) is a process
which has different timing in different people and may vary, for most of
the STD's, from 2-3 weeks to 4-5 months. For instance, few people may
seroconvert for HIV antibodies within 2-3- weeks, the majority (90-95%) within
2-3 months and no one is known to produce antibodies after 6 months. The
situation is very similar for Hepatitis and Herpes infections.
Other methodologies can be used to
shorten the waiting time such as Cultures and DNA/RNA amplification
where you do not look for your body response but for the presence of the
bacterium or viruses themselves or their genetic material. This can
shorten the waiting time significantly down to 2-3 days in situation
such as Chlamydia and Gonorrhea and to 28 days in HIV infection.
However, is always a good idea to retest for antibodies 4-6 months after
exposure.
THE PLEDGE