To retest or not to retest

[conflicted]

In May of this year I had a complete STD test done for the reason of starting a new relationship. I am a 57 years old woman and was married for 25 years. I have been single for the last two years. To my surprise the results came back positive for both HSV1 and HSV 2. Using the LabCorp IGG HSV 1=2.25 and IGG HSV 2= 4.54 IGMs were both negative.
I have never had any symptoms. I have been in a sexless marriage for most of the last 10 years. I had a brief encounter with a man in August of 2014, one year ago. I was the giver of oral sex for a short period of time in which he never rose to the occasion and therefore never got hard and never climaxed It lasted less that two minutes. Two weeks later he told me he has had Herpes 2 for the last 30 years. He did not have an outbreak at the time. I did not think too much of it as oral HSV 2 is relatively uncommon and I had no symptoms. I have to reiterate that no intercourse ever took place. So my question is -it is possible for the IGG numbers to be a false positive due to cross reactivity and should I be retested wtih the Western Blot? I also should mention that I currently have HPV due to planters warts that I have been seeing a podiatrist for treatments.

• This topic was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by conflicted.

[Terri Warren]

Technically, your HSV 1 index value is in the low positive range, but our recent research shows that almost everyone who tests positive over 2.0 on the HSV 1 screening test confirms with western blot. And generally, we consider the top of the low positive range for HSV 2 to be 3.5. But in our recent study again, we had 3 out of 18 people with an index value over 4.0 NOT confirm with western blot. Two were higher than 4.5 that did not confirm

Did you have other partners before you were married? Do you have any idea about your ex-husband’s HSV 2 status?
After you were the giver of oral sex to the partner in 2014, did you develop any oral symptoms?

Terri

[conflicted]

Did I have any other partners before my husband? Yes, I was married once before. I do not know about my ex hsv 2 status.
No symptoms after oral sex with the brief encounter last year in 2014.

Do you think I should try to persuade my physician to follow up with the Western Blot?
She told me I was not contagious from the results of my test but I have my doubts.

[Terri Warren]

So if the test is accurate, which it likely is, you are most definitely contagious. If you have been infected for a long time you may not be as infectious as someone with new infection but we know that people with HSV 2 shed virus on average, 13% of days swabbed (so 13 out of 100 or about 45 days a year). This can happen with or without lesions. I think you need to read a bit more about herpes. There is a free handbook on this website that will be helpful.

Your physician cannot order the western blot for herpes – it can obtained with with a kit shipped from UWashington or our clinic can order it be drawn at a Quest lab near you. Insurance cannot be used with tests ordered through us; Quest does not allow this. They will only agree to bill our clinic for this test, not patients (too many people didn’t pay and thus screwed it up for everyone who wanted insurance billing) so we have patients pay us and we pay Quest directly. This allows us to offer the test a significantly lower rate.

Are you certain that you are posting the correct results? I cannot imagine her saying that about a positive result like this.

Terri

[conflicted]

Yes, the results are correct I guess my next question is can it be oral HSV 2 and not genital?
How do I go about ordering the Western Blot. I need to confirm this in my own mind.

[Terri Warren]

Without lesions to swab or at least view, we cannot know but our research tells us that at least 95% of people who are HSV 2 positive shed virus from the genital tract. We can order the western blot for you to be drawn at a lab near you. You can also contact UW directly to get a kit sent to you and you find a place to have the blood drawn and you ship it back. Either one works.

Terri

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