HSV-2 False Positive?

[SeekingAdvice123]

Hello,

I am a 25 year old straight caucasian male. On August 12th, 2022 (nearly a year ago) I sought out my first STD panel at a free clinic offered as part of my work benefits. I was 24 at the time and was a virgin in nearly all senses of the word. The only sexual contact I had experienced to that point was regular kissing, some rubbing over clothes, and receiving oral stimulation twice (once with a condom on/once without.) I had never had vaginal or anal penetrative sex, provided unclothed manual stimulation to another, or given oral stimulation to another.

I went in for the Aug 12th screening because I had a long term partner with whom I wanted to engage in intercourse, and both of us wanted to establish a baseline screening. I had never experienced any kind of symptoms before in my life. I had not even had a cold sore to my knowledge. All results for each test came back negative, except an HSV-2 screening that was run. This test was a Herpes Simplex Virus 1 and 2 (IgG), Type-Specific Antibodies test with no reflex testing from Quest Diagnostics.

Aug 12th 2022 Results
HSV IGG TYPE 1 <0.90 Index: NEGATIVE
HSV IGG TYPE 2 3.31 Index: POSITIVE

I was shattered. I could not believe the results and read up online about the Western Blot, but the clinic was unable to find it and instead ran a second test through LabCorp, another immunoblot assay (which I have read the CDC says not to do in this instance.) LABCORP TEST 138487 HERPES SIMPLEX
VIRUS IMMUNOBLOT. This occurred on August 19th, 2022. No index values were provided on this test.

Augh 19th 2022 Results
HSV-1 IgG Antibody Positive
HSV-2 IgG Antibody Positive

It should be noted I did test positive for an at home covid test the week before the first test, if that has any bearing. I am at a loss it has been nearly a year. My girlfriend at the time did not care as she thought it was obviously flawed. Is it worth pursuing the Western Blot? This still haunts me. What do you think odds of false positive are?

[SeekingAdvice123]

I would like to add that the 2 instances of receiving oral sex occurred in the middle of May 2022 with a girl who had only one prior sexual partner and had never performed oral before then. There was a period of about 3 months of zero encounters after that while single (including kissing) before my August 12th screening.

In total I had kissed 7 different women throughout my life up to the point of the screening. All were my age or younger with less than 2 or zero previous sexual partners each, and I was constantly on the lookout for cold sores before I ever knew what the herpes virus was. Is it possible I contracted HSV-2 just from kissing?

I know that a 3.31 index value is closer to the high range of the 1.1-3.5 zone of potential false positives, so I expect there is a 10-25% chance it will be proven wrong based on the index score alone. However, given that I had no significant prior sexual history and was sick with covid the week before the screening, would it be fair to assume the chance of a false positive is higher than 10-25%?

I also want to note I was vaccinated for varicella as a kid, and have likely been exposed to the epstein barr virus from living with a family member who had mono. Furthermore, I travel to Mexico quite often and I believe I have read that you find false positives more often in those born outside the US. Don’t know if being born in the US but traveling to a foreign country quite frequently counts.

Thanks in advance. I ordered the western blot kit and will schedule a meeting with you when it arrives to help find a place to draw. I was just wondering what your perspective was on my outlook.

[SeekingAdvice123]

When I say I was “single” for 3 months prior to the screening, I mean my long term girlfriend at that time lived in Mexico and we did not have physical contact until September that year. I got screened a month before I next saw her. Ended things with girl 1 in middle of May ’22 and promptly started a long distance relationship with girl 2, but had a 3 month period of no physical contact before the August 12th screening. Sorry for knitpicking and oversharing. I am just stressing out and want all the info out there for your consideration.

[Terri Warren]

We spoke this week, I believe. I seriously doubt that you have HSV 2, and we are doing the western blot. Hopefully, you can post your results here when they come in.

Terri

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