Equivocal, what now?

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Hi Terri,

I had unprotected sex with new partner (after 15 years of monogamous partner) who claimed no STDs (but I have no way of truly knowing for sure) on 1/10. Ended up doing full panel testing just because I got nervous (no symptoms), through STDCheck Quest Diagnostics on 2/17 (5 weeks 3 days later):

HSV 1 IGG, TYPE SPECIFIC
Result: <0.90
(negative range <0.90)

HSV 2 IGG, TYPE SPECIFIC
Result: 0.93
(equivocal range 0.90 – 1.09)

Still no symptoms (8 weeks since the unprotected sex). What am I supposed to do at this point? Take another test? Assume negative and don’t make my anxiety about it worse?

Thank you!

[Terri Warren]

Equivocals rarely become positive but I have seen three equivocal’s now in my career that are positive by western blot. That’s a very tiny percentage of the people who have equivocal results for whom we have ordered western blots. I think my recommendation would be to do another IgG test at 8 to 10 weeks and if still equivocal, you are very likely negative. If you cannot relax with the negative then you could do a western blot.

Terri

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