What does equivocal mean?

[needing answers]

Hello, I recently had blood work done simply to find out my status with STDs. I have had blood work done in the past (2002, 2008, and 2011) and have never had any positive results. I just had lab work done this week and HSV2 came back as equivocal. I have looked this up on the internet and can’t really get a definitive definition. It is some sort of grey area. The referenced range for HSV 2 was:
IgG: >.90 negative; equivocal .91 to 1.09; and positive > 1.10

My result was .94
I have read that the next step would be to retest or get a western blot test. But my main concern was what does an equivocal result mean? borderline positive? borderline negative?
I have never had any outbreaks to indicate that I may have the HSV 2 virus, but some online info at WebMD stated that you don’t need to have an outbreak to have the virus. And also that the IgG test doesn’t specify if the HSV2 is genital or oral. Can you help shed some light on this situation for me. I have been with the same partner for the past 3 years as well and neither of us have tested positive for any STDs.
Thank you in advance

[Terri Warren]

Equivocal means just that – you aren’t positive but you aren’t really negative either. Sometimes people have an equivocal result because they are newly infected and are in the process of going from negative to positive. Sometimes, there is some other thing in your blood that looks like herpes antibody that is falsely triggering this index value. Has your partner of three years actually been tested for herpes? If your partner tests negative for HSV 2 and there are no other people sexually in this picture, then I would make the assumption that you really are negative. An antibody test cannot tell you where an infection is, only if you have it or not.

Terri

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