Testing Recommendations

[Cant stop stressing]

Hi Terri,

I was diagnosed 4 years ago with GHSV1 and OHSV1. Got it at the same time. I wanted to get your stance on HSV2 testing. I have not been tested for HSV2 since the HSV1 diagnosis, and have slept with other people. I was wondering if you recommend getting tested for HSV2 each time after having sex with someone new. In a perfect world, everyone would be tested for everything before sex, but as you know, it rarely works out that way. I’ve never had another outbreak to my knowledge and have been on Valtrex during these sexual encounters. My user name doesn’t really apply to my question anymore, as I created this account a whole ago and never asked a question. Not as stressed anymore lol.

[Cant stop stressing]

I’m basically trying to decide if going forward, I should get tested before I sleep with someone new and if I should make them get tested as well before we sleep together.

[Terri Warren]

You ask a really great question. The unfortunate thing is that herpes antibody testing is plagued with problems. The test can yield both false positives and false-negative results, compared to the gold standard herpes western blot. It probably isn’t practical or affordable for most people to obtain a western blot before having sex with a new person every time. However, this is really something that I think should be discussed before having unprotected sex with anyone. And condoms don’t reduce transmission fully for everyone. Condoms reduce transmission by 96% from men to women and 65% from women to men. This is an individual decision
and the CDC recommends against getting tested every time you have an STI screen unless you have some symptoms that concern you. That’s not exactly the stand that I personally would take but I understand, given the poor performance of the routinely available herpes antibody test, why that recommendation has been made.
Terri

[Author]

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