Herpes test a false positive? Is it possible?

[jb1691]

Is it possible to not have h after having unprotected sex with your partner who tested positive from a viral culture? Everything that my partner and I spoke about makes no sense that her test came up positive. I wonder if it was a false positive. What are the chances?

[mr_hopp]

Hey JB! Can you ask your question in a different way? I'm confused exactly what you're asking and I want to make sure you get a full answer. So your partner got a blood test (IgG test or Western Blot?) or got her herpes outbreak swabbed? And you're asking the chances of you having gotten herpes from her if you had unprotected sex with her? Was it during what seemed to be her having an outbreak? As many details as you can give will help us understand better.

[jb1691]

Sure sorry i didnt really know how to write it out. My partner and I had gotten tested in September and the results came back negative. When i saw her in October, we had unprotected sex. A week later she was in a lot of pain and had a bump in her genitals. She got a swab test and that came back positive. I saw a small bump that looked to be a cold sore on my gentials and went to get it tested. The doctor told me there was no pus to test so she took my blood and it came back negative. I was wondering if there was any chance that her test could have been a false positive. It just doesnt make any sense that she could have gotten h, when she recently got tested and it came back negative. If thats the case that the test was accurate, is there a chance that i didnt receive h after having unprotected sex with her more than once? Hope this is clearer. Thank you very much!

[mr_hopp]

Ah, well it takes an average of 3 months for the body to build up enough antibodies against herpes to show up on blood tests. So if either of you had sex with someone else within 3 months prior to when both of you got tested in October, then the test could have shown up negative when one of you actually did have herpes but hadn't built up enough detectable antibodies. By how you describe it, that seems to be what happened.

 

The next probability would be that the test may have been a false negative or false positive. What sort of test did each of you get in October? IgG or Western Blot?

[jb1691]

I havent had sex with anyone since May and she had sex with someone else in September, but claimed that he got tested as well and he was clean. We both got Western Blot tests. I have a feeling that i have h. I wanted to retest at the end of this month, but that would only be 2 months after the last time we had sex. I should probably wait until 3 months so i dont waste my money on the test that could come up a false negative. This stuff gives me a lot of anxiety :(