Reply To: Negative at Four Weeks. Now What?

[Elli]

Sorry for taking so long to followup. My boyfriend didn’t have his old test results so he had another one done and we got the results last week. It was an IgG antibody blood test and his results were indeed positive for HSV-2 (4.2).

I’ve known this man for years, and he’s “the one.” Our romantic relationship has rapidly progressed and we just moved in together. We still don’t use condoms, and he doesn’t take antivirals. These are points we’ve discussed at length and have mutually agreed upon. I believe this relationship will last at least a few years and I’ve accepted that I will likely become infected.

This might be a ridiculous question, but what if I don’t? What if I never become infected? As you mentioned, not everyone who has herpes transmits it, but how does a person know if they’re in this group? For HSV-2 discordant couples that have sex (with no condom, no antivirals), when is it safe to think that transmission probably won’t happen? Never? Is it always a possibility? I heard of discordant couples being together for years without becoming mutually infected and without taking special precautions (aside from avoiding sex before/during/after outbreaks, but my boyfriend has never had an outbreak). Are there statistics on this? I would think its very rare.

I have easy access to blood tests and retest often, mostly because I’m curious about when/if I become infected. I stay around 0.2 (+/- 0.05), and I continue to have no symptoms. If I received a result of something liek 0.8, while that’s still negative, would it be an indication that I’m seroconverting?