I am glad that you came to this forum to get clarification about your diagnosis. Do you recall 20 years ago when you were first diagnosed how that happened? That is, did he do a swab test that was positive for HSV-2 or did he diagnose you by visual exam?
It is a little confusing to me about the testing that you found in your records. HSV PCR should not a blood test, it should be a swab test. Some clinicians make the error of using this as a blood test but that’s not useful because adults almost never have herpes simplex in their blood. In an effort to be current with good practice many clinicians know about PCR but some apply it incorrectly, believing it should be a blood test rather than the proper use, a swab test. So basically if the PCR is a blood test, that information is not useful to you.
What you need is an IgG type specific antibody test. That is a test that looks for antibody to HSV-1 and HSV-2 separately. Some tests that you do not want to have include IgM testing or any test that combines HSV-1 and HSV-2 antibody. Is your new provider willing to do antibody testing for you? If you have had herpes type II for 20 years, it would be unusual though not impossible to have zero outbreaks. Also, if you have taken Valtrex for 20 years, that could be the reason you have had no outbreaks. However, most people do you have a few outbreaks in spite of taking antiviral medicine.
I’m so glad you have decided to get clarification about your herpes diagnosis. It sounds like you may be reentering the dating world and it’s good to know exactly where you stand, herpeswise. I would like to ask you: are you still not taking Valtrex? It would be good to be off of Valtrex for at least four months before you do this type specific antibody testing. The use of antiviral therapy can confuse herpes antibody test results. So once again, you need type specific igG HSV I and II antibody testing. Please let me know how this goes for you. If you have further questions please don’t hesitate to ask
Terri