Questions about a false positive

Being the worried well that I am, my mind thought of these questions, and I thought I'd see what you guys had to say about them.

a) I know false positives are not common, but then how do they occur? Why do we have false positives?

b) Also, why would a doctor tell you you had a positive if it has not been confirmed? Wouldn't the lab go through the entire procedure of confirming the result with a Western Blot and give you a final result?

c) Assuming that your result had to be confirmed with a Western Blot, how long would it take for them to do that? I guess I'm looking for an average.

Thanks for anyone that responds! The questions may seem stupid and make no sense, but obviously I'm no expert,just wanted to know.

[Teak]

No doctor should give you a positive result without it being confirmed.

[pixiedust23]

Hmm, yeah, I thought so too. Thought I'd ask regardless.

What is the deal with false positives then?

[lyn648]

Its a bit inaccurate to say no doctor should give you a positive result without it being confirmed. Based on my experience and those of others, it is happening quite frequently.  All I got was an email saying BTW you tested positive for antibodies for HSV-2. I had to do my own research to figure out a index of 2.5 was a low positive. My doctor was very resistant to re-testing. She had never heard of the Western Blot...just said she would look into it. I went to LabCorp & was retested with HerpSelect ELIZA IgG and am waiting on results, haven't been able to get my doctor to work with me at all on setting up a Western Blot yet, even if I'm willing to pay to have it done. Their lab would still have to pack up blood to be shipped to UW. I don't know yet if I'm positive or not, but I think there's great ignorance among doctors about false positives or even about what the index scores mean in general for HerpSelect ELIZA tests. They certainly never said a score of 2.5 could have up to a 50% chance of being wrong. I may have never taken the test if they told me that. I had no risk factors, I was just 'covering all my bases so to speak and now have to endure months of anguish not knowing if I will end up being positive or negative. Glad forums like this are at least starting to inform average people. Too bad the GYNOS aren't being informed.

[Teak]

A good respectable doctor will not give you a positive test result without it being confirmed.