My doctor's nurse called me today with my STD Panel results. She said everything came back negative except my HSV, which came back "equivocal." She talked about HSV-I and how that's the virus that causes cold sores, and that I could just have that but that I could also possibly have HSV-II. I've had cold sores before (and actually before I got my results today, wondered if I could be getting another--probably psychological, though). Because of the equivocal result, she said I need to retest. She said the lab couldn't explain why the result would have been low except to say something about methodology. She did not tell me any of the numbers I have seen other people posting--just that it was equivocal.
The reason I wanted the panel done was because my husband and I were separated for about 6 months during which time we each had another partner. My last encounter was at least 6 months ago, and I don't think I have had an outbreak (no painful lesions or anything that would make me go "Oh, I've got herpes"). When I went to the doctor, he conducted a full pelvic exam, and didn't mention noticing any lesions or signs of an outbreak. I have had an increased amount of discharge recently, but it wasn't colored and didn't have an odor. I had also been experiencing some discomfort after sex, lasting for a day or two. It would basically feel like skin rubbing, and he said this was likely from the episiotomy I had when delivering my baby (because scar tissue had formed right where I said I felt discomfort). They took swabs of the discharge and said I had a yeast infection (but that it's an abnormal type of yeast) and a "bacterial overgrowth" that was not sexually transmitted, but could be caused by sex changing my pH levels. I was prescribed Flagyl and a vaginal suppository to correct these problems. He did not seem to think I had anything else, and even told me it was up to me whether I did the STD panel or not. (I would assume if he thought I had reason to he would have said I needed to have the test done as opposed to telling me to do it if I wanted.) As far as I know, my husband's last encounter was six months ago, too, and I don't have reason to think otherwise. He says he got tested after his encounter "to be safe," and that his results were negative--however he also doesn't remember if they drew blood or not. I can't imagine they would have done an STD test on him without drawing blood, but who knows. He said he went to an urgent care center.
My doctor said he wanted me to wait 6-8 weeks to retest, which (despite all of my confusion about all of this to begin with) brings me to my questions. Do I really need to wait 6-8 weeks to get retested if my last exposure was six months ago? I'm seeing you post "since the last time you had sex," which makes me wonder if I shouldn't have sex with my husband until I test again? If we are monogamous, would continuing to have sex unprotected or protected make a difference? If I need to wait to get retested (or if I simply retest), is there a specific kind of test I should make sure they do? Could the yeast infection and bacteria have skewed the result somehow? I have heard stories of HSV "incubating" for years and years, and that I could have gotten it in college for example, but never known it until now. I know they ran the gamut of tests when I was pregnant with my daughter in 2010 and again in June when I went for my annual checkup and everything came back negative. If I had HSV-II, wouldn't it have shown up on those tests unless I was just exposed? I tend to overly worry, and since they couldn't provide me with much information about this and seemed as confused as I was about it, it's making me worry even more.
Please help!