You ask a really great question. The unfortunate thing is that herpes antibody testing is plagued with problems. The test can yield both false positives and false-negative results, compared to the gold standard herpes western blot. It probably isn’t practical or affordable for most people to obtain a western blot before having sex with a new person every time. However, this is really something that I think should be discussed before having unprotected sex with anyone. And condoms don’t reduce transmission fully for everyone. Condoms reduce transmission by 96% from men to women and 65% from women to men. This is an individual decision
and the CDC recommends against getting tested every time you have an STI screen unless you have some symptoms that concern you. That’s not exactly the stand that I personally would take but I understand, given the poor performance of the routinely available herpes antibody test, why that recommendation has been made.
Terri