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Hi Terri. The last few days have been a whirlwind ride of extreme emotions. I am a 37 yo F, in the divorce process after 12 years of marriage partly because last Thursday I went to my obgyn for a OCP consult and STD check since I suspected infidelity. My obgyn ran everything including HSV-1 and HSV-2. I was negative for HSV-1 but came back positive for HSV-2. My value is 2.36. After reading countless questions from this site and reading the CDC recommendations for positive results between 1.1 and 3.5, I am wondering why my obgyn did not order confirmatory testing or even tell me that there was a chance that it was a false positive. He called me with the result, did not tell me my value and said “You’re positive. This is your life now and you need to start on these meds.” Then he went on vacation for 2 weeks. Mainly, after doing some research on my own through the CDC, Uptodate, and the US Preventative Service Task Force, I realized I could have a false positive. I have never in my life had an STD. So this news was devastating especially after being married for 12 years and never once cheating on my husband. I confronted my husband with my result and he admitted cheating 6 months ago once, having unprotected sex. I asked him to get checked immediately. His result was negative. So I decided to get a second opinion from another obgyn. She took one look at my recent result and informed me that it was indeed positive despite what I may have read elsewhere. I should say the the test I was given was the HSV-2 IgG Herpeselect. I asked if there were any confirmatory tests and she suggested repeating the original test. Is that worth it? I asked about the western blot and she had no idea what I was talking about. Would it be worthwhile to get even though my spouse is negative. Finally, she told me I could have gotten HSV2 before I met my husband 12 years ago and that he is just “lucky” and has a good immune system. Is that possible? I should also mention both my spouse and I have been asymptomatic.
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Wow. You have gotten an interesting set of advice regarding your testing. You need a herpes Western blot because you have a low positive index value. It’s really quite simple. It’s possible that you are infected and your husband did not acquire infection during your marriage. The best thing to do at this point is to get the blot and forget all the weird advice. Please do not start antiviral medicine at this time. I don’t know when the last time you have sex with your husband was, but if he happened to the newly infected and has infected you but has not become antibody positive himself, the antivirals that impacts your test results. If it has been a long time since you last had sex with him, antivirals do not make a difference in the testing but I don’t see a reason for you to take them if you’re asymptomatic. If you are considering having sex with a new partner, I would recommend getting the Western blot first. You can work with your own provider to get this test or I can help you get it. If you want me to help you, you will need to make an appointment and to do that, you should go to the homepage of this website and click on the button for videoconferences.
Terri
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Good, glad you are moving on this. Great job advocating for yourself.
The transmission rate from female to male is about 4% per year so not that high – it’s possible. Probably more likely that is is a false positive.Terri
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The guideline from the CDC says that HSV testing should be considered in people seeking an STI screen so I don’t think this was out of order.
If you have only had sex with your negative partner in the past year, the guidance of the University of Washington is that you should consider an indeterminate a negative.This is your final post on this subscription. If you have more questions, feel free to renew
Terri
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