Asymptomatic IGG Positive

[kiserjohn33]

Good afternoon. I am a bisexual male in a dedicated relationship (currently with a male). I have never had any herpes outbreaks. Given that I am bisexual I have a yearly sexual health screen. A herpes test is part of that panel. I have always been negative in the past. However, this year I was HSV-2 positive on an IGG with a score of 1.3. To say I was shocked is an understatement. I had that bloodwork this past Monday 9/19 at Labcorp. I was so freaked out and knew it had to be wrong so I went yesterday and had another test. The test yesterday at Quest came back at .99. I am very confident my partner and I both have been faithful to each other for the last year. I don’t want to mention it to him and get him upset and lead him to think I have been unfaithful (when I haven’t.). I had one protected sexual encounter with a female before being monogomous with my current partner. Due to my bisexual status I did have the interdermal first dose of the monkeypox vaccine 3 weeks ago. Is there a chance it is cross reactive? Both tests have been negative for HSV-1. As low as these values are and given I have been totally asymptomatic I would like to assume I am HSV-2 free, go on with life, and maybe retest in a year or so. But I don’t want to expose my partner if I really might be positive. It just seems unlikely given the low values and the fact I have not had but one potentially infective encounter since a negative test. Please share your thoughts. Thank you so much.

[kiserjohn33]

I also had the new bivalent Covid vaccine 3 weeks ago around the same time as the monkey pox vaccine.

[kiserjohn33]

I was so upset over the potential positive result that I did not review the entire lab report. With my initial LabCorp test, it did include a supplemental test that was negative. I assume based on my description above and with the supplemental test being negative it is safe to assume I am negative for HSV-2. Do you concur? Thanks for your guidance. I apologize for the multiple posts before you have had a chance to answer.

[Terri Warren]

There is good agreement between people who get a negative supplemental and a negative western blot. Your IgG is so very low I would be very surprised if a western blot would be positive. Plus the information about your sexual history really doesn’t suggest a new herpes infection.

We don’t know if there is any cross reactivity between those vaccines and herpes antibody testing.
Terri

[Author]

Posts