Herpes testing false negative?

[Concerned12345]

Hi

I have been with my wife for 15 years. We were both unfaithful about 5 years ago. We managed to make amends and forgive each other. We are very much in love and have been faithful to each other. My wife is now pregnant with our first. I’m worried I might have herpes.

I have been getting what I have thought are recurring thrush infections since around that time 1 or 2 a year. The most recent being about a month ago. I decided to google recurring thrush infection and landed at herpes and then here. I also had a closer look at my thrush which I haven’t done before and believe there are very small blistered primarily on the head but also some in the shaft, not clustered and very small.

When my wife and I decided to press on with our relationship we got STD tests at 3 months. I was negative for everything including herpes. I believe the tests were IGG. As my wife is pregnant she has done a bunch of test and all come back negative including hsv I believe.

I have read that there are false negatives for both types. I’m concerned that I may have fallen in to this category. I am also concerned that my wife may not be infected and that I risk infecting her. We are not having sex while she is pregnant as it is a somewhat high risk pregnancy.

My questions are

– I understand false negative happen with IGG. Is there any point getting another IGG or will the test result just be another false negative? I am not in a location that has access to Westernblot test.

– should I wait for the next occurrence and get a swab test?

– what are my options for testing?

[Terri Warren]

If the IgG misses an infection, I find it misses it more than once. The IgG test misses 30% of HSV 1 and 8% of HSV 2. If you cannot obtain a western blot (and it can be shipped from anywhere in the world) then having the bumps swab tested the next time they show is the next best thing. And PCR is a better swab test than culture, if you can get that when you get swab tested.

Have you ever in your life had a cold sore on you lip or in your nose?

Terri

[Concerned12345]

I have never had a cold sore on my lips or in my nose. My mum gets cold sores on her lips. I do occasionally get what I have always thought were styes on my left eye. Though I am questioning this now. A small blister forms on my eye lid and goes away in a few days. Again I’ve never really had this looked at.

I had another antibody igg test which was negative.

I live in Australia. How do I go about getting the western blot?

[Terri Warren]

I can work with you to get the blot if you can find someone to draw and spin one serum separator tube.
If you can arrange that, then you need to set up a video conference with me and we can get this started.

What you describe on your eye sounds like a stye to me.

Terri

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