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False Positive Gonorrhea Test?

Background: I am a 25 yrs old healthy female. I have been in a monogamous relationship for the past five years and for the past five years I have been going to the same clinic where I get my PAPs, birth control, and any testing done.
So, here's my story..

On Dec 19,2012 I had a routine PAP smear/ STD testing done. The PAP was normal but i was diagnosed with BV, they gave me antibiotics, they gave me antibiotics for treatment and my STD test was negative for all STDs found threw a urine sample. I go back to the same clinic Feb 27,2013 for another cycle of birth control pills and took a pregnancy test because i was a few days late with my period. that came back negative and before i left they asked if i would give consent to a STD test, the nurse explained STDs are very common in my age bracket, so they recommend testing. I, of course said yes. I get a call Mar 4,2013 form the clinic that i have tested positive for gonorrhea. I was very confused and automatically thought it was a mistake but she assured me this was no mistake and the results are 99% accurate. I asked to be retested and she suggested to make a appt for my partner and i to get treated and talk to them about retesting at the time of the appt, I agreed. Later that day I go in for my appt and I ask the nurse to be retested, she said I wouldn't be able to because of ins. purposes but she explained that my partner will be asked to leave a urine sample before he undergoes treatment for the STD and she assured me that his would be positive also. She explained, gonorrhea is a highly contagious disease and without a doubt he would have it too. The rest of the appt was for of a counseling session on "how to stay strong and leave a cheater" as I am sure was their protocol. My partner left a urine sample and was treated that same day and i am sure had the same counseling as I. After waiting a couple days on Mar 7,2013 he got his results, they were NEGATIVE?! he was questioning the results of course and they made him a appt to come in and speak with a health professional. At that appt he was told that he could've still been in the early stages of the STD (which were explained to be around 2weeks) to where the test didn't pick the bacteria up in his urine sample? Another possibility is that he could be immune? I too have spoke to a health professional and she says that the false positive rate for gonorrhea is at 20% so i could've very well had a false reading, also that men are highly contaigious to gonorreha so if i had it he defnetly would too.

After, a few moments of thought i realized that the health professional's explanation of him being in the early stages did not stand at all. The dates don't match. If I tested positive Feb27, that would mean I would've already had it in my system for 2weeks and he would've been infected in the same time frame as I since we would have intercourse on the regular.

Now, we are on day 5 of this awful ordeal where I am the one being blamed. I literally now feel like I am fighting for the life I have worked the past 5yrs to build. There is no doubt in my mind that he is faithful to me and I know in my heart I have been faithful to him. Please any explanations, statics, or experiences that will give meaning to this horrible situation will help.


Thank You
Best Answer
Avatar universal
I don't want to call it a lab screw up as maybe not an accurate test. But there is a certain amount of false positives that are just accepted (don't know that number though).

I know with a chlamydia test when done with a pap the false positive is at least 10%, so this might be so for gonorrhea also, I just don't know.
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Avatar universal
I had the exact same experience, no lie. I had a yearly Pap smear done, and my gyno asked if I would consent to an STD test. She calls on a Friday out of the blue to tell me I tested positive for gonorrhea. I was 22 and have been with one partner my whole life and we had been dating for almost 3 years. We were happy and healthy and spend almost all of our time together so this made no sense. I was a brand new patient to my gyno at this time and she told me the news and said it was 100% accurate then she went on vacation for the week so I could not contact her. Petrified I immediately took the treatment she prescribed me. My boyfriend and I were now on horrible terms of blaming each other over tears, me trying to explain over and over that I didn't do anything so if he was positive it had to be his fault. This is still Friday. Saturday evening I went to urgent care to be retested because I just could not rap my brain around how this was possible. The doctors said the anti bodies would be in my system for at least four weeks. That result tested negative. By boyfriends was negative. Now five months later we are still together. We have to trust each other and what our hearts were telling us. We have to believe that it was false. With all of these negative tests my new gyno agrees that it was most likely false and that if we had it we would have showed symptoms. She says most people who have gonorrhea come in with symptoms. My story was just an annual exam.
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Avatar universal
I am going through the exact same situation,  my partners. Was very irregular,  she made a comment that there was something going on with her lady parts. Her dad recently passed away her work has been crazy so she did not have time to go to the doctor to get checked so I did. This was in December,  I had not been with anyone  since March of that year,  we did not have sexual intercourse until late July.  I never had any sort of symptoms whatsoever  and being a male I'm told thats hard to miss. I got a callback from Planned Parenthood with positive results, hers came back negative. I know with 100% certainty I have been faithful and I am highly confident she has been as well with exception of her possibly giving someone will oral sex in late June I found out. This has completely destroyed my life being blamed for cheating which I have not on any level, I moved from Mpls to our home state after dating long distance in October and now have had to move into my own place and have lost the woman I have always felt was the one and I've been searching for answers ever since. How can this kind of thing happen?? What are the odds of her possibly contracting and transmitting from an oral sex encounter and the odds of my being false positive. I'm 45 and have never had an STD ever. #lifechanging
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should post this in its own thread not within someone elses message, it will be seen by experts better.
Avatar universal
Thank you a bunch for your reply it is much appreciated!

I am the one insisting this is a false positive reading because i have not had sexual intercourse with any other person, I also believe he is faithful. Things are just a bit more complex on his end. Being that i am the one that got the positive, by default i am the one that cheated in his eyes. It is deemed easier for the one being accused to chalk it up to a lab screw up, but for him its much harder to believe especially since he is a man of "facts." so my question to you are lab screw ups more common then the average person may think? are we going threw something that is common? the fact that the average person doesn't hear of this on the regular is what is making it hard for him to just throw away a so-called 99% accurate test... I am desperately trying to put myself in his shoes but at the same time make sure I am not wrongfully accused and 5 yrs  of our lives is not thrown away.
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Avatar universal
Well I hope I can be of some help.

With him testing negative and you positive it comes to these possibilities:
You had a false positive
He had gonorrhea recently but got it treated
You got gonorrhea recently and never transmitted it to him

I don't know the rate of fale positives but if you are 100% truthful then you got a false positive is most likely situation. And since they would not retest no way to know now since you treated.

Somethings that you and him were told was just wrong. Him being immune or too early...garbage.

I wish I could a definate answer but if he trusts you and you trust him then just move on and chalk this up to the lab screw up.
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Avatar universal
Both him and I had no symptoms.
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