What does seroconversion mean in gay culture?
What is seroconversion?
Term defining when a person originally tests negative for an infection, then test positive shortly afterwards.
Definition
Seroconversion is when a previous test for the antibodies came back negative, then in a follow up, it returns a positive result. Meaning that a recent infection had occurred.
Seroreversion, the opposite of Seroconversion, does not mean that a person infected is no longer infected, merely that the levels of antibodies are no longer able to be detected.
Noteworthy: Immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies are produced during the initial infection, and when these levels drop they produce an increase in Immunoglobulin G (IgG) which are detected, giving a positive result.
This result, generally means the infection is current, recent, active.
If re-infected, the IgM levels do not rise, or be detected as such, however if the IgG levels rise, it does indicate a further infection may be active, or has occurred.