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Gonorrhea - False Positive Possible?
(hopefully this isn't too long, sorry!)
I have been in a monogamous relationship for 9 months now... We have been having unprotected sex for 6 months or so. I'll state right from the start that I do recognize cheating is always a possibility, I understand that.
In my case though, I have not had an active sex life, nor has my girlfriend. My last girlfriend/sexual partner was 7 years ago (and we were both virgins), her last partner was 4 years ago (her first as well, but not for him). We're both incredibly shy, again I recognize cheating is always possible, but meeting other people is incredibly hard for both of us, let alone getting into a sexual relationship (7 year and 4 year gap for us). I know it is true that it has been a 4 year gap for her, due to her friends' comments to me "We were so worried that she'd never find a boyfriend! It has been so long!", etc...
We live in Japan, and she's a nurse at a women's clinic and she deals with women seeking the morning after pill, or regular contraceptive pills. She estimates that anywhere from 60-90% of her patients have some kind of STD, the most common by far being Chlamydia. After 6 months of working with these women, she started getting mildly paranoid about Chlamydia (she'd never been tested for it before), she decided to get tested since it'd be cheap for her at her clinic. Thankfully, the test came back negative (as expected).
Now, the shocker was that the only test they had was a dual test for both Chlamydia and Gonorrhea (common, I'm told?) and it came back positive for Gonorrhea. I did some googling of it and there is some references to false positives (including some case in Hawaii with 5 women all getting false positives from the same test lab). My girlfriend is quite distraught right now, assuming that she somehow caught it from her old terrible BF from 4 years ago (he was unfaithful and cheated on her several times), and has just been asymptomatic all these years ("We've been broken up for 4 years, and still he's hurting me!").
I'm getting tested tomorrow (of course!), but I also have been completely asymptomatic. No itching, no pain, no secretions, same for her.
Another oddity is due to the country. In Japan, Gonorrhea is not all that common, while Chlamydia is disturbingly common. Based on my girlfriend's patients, she previously thought that basically 100% of all people that have Gonorrhea in Japan also have Chlamydia. Having it and NOT having Chlamydia (as her test results claim) is almost unheard of here (or at least at her clinic).
She wants to get treated ASAP (of course), but I'm making her get another test before she receives the treatment (we're going to go together and both get tested tomorrow).
4 years asymptomatic with no sexual partners for her, 7 years for me, no Chlamydia (which in Japan is almost always a given if you have Gonorrhea). Am I going off the deep end thinking that there's a chance this is a false positive? I'm not worried about this (Gonorrhea can be cured and we're both asymptomatic anyways), but if it was a false positive, I'm sure you know that we'll both feel better about it (she won't feel she's been carrying an unwanted gift from her old BF). Given our sexual history, I'm feeling like it's maybe a 50/50 shot that this is a false positive... but like many people on this site, I'm just seeking an opinion while we wait for our new test results...
I have been in a monogamous relationship for 9 months now... We have been having unprotected sex for 6 months or so. I'll state right from the start that I do recognize cheating is always a possibility, I understand that.
In my case though, I have not had an active sex life, nor has my girlfriend. My last girlfriend/sexual partner was 7 years ago (and we were both virgins), her last partner was 4 years ago (her first as well, but not for him). We're both incredibly shy, again I recognize cheating is always possible, but meeting other people is incredibly hard for both of us, let alone getting into a sexual relationship (7 year and 4 year gap for us). I know it is true that it has been a 4 year gap for her, due to her friends' comments to me "We were so worried that she'd never find a boyfriend! It has been so long!", etc...
We live in Japan, and she's a nurse at a women's clinic and she deals with women seeking the morning after pill, or regular contraceptive pills. She estimates that anywhere from 60-90% of her patients have some kind of STD, the most common by far being Chlamydia. After 6 months of working with these women, she started getting mildly paranoid about Chlamydia (she'd never been tested for it before), she decided to get tested since it'd be cheap for her at her clinic. Thankfully, the test came back negative (as expected).
Now, the shocker was that the only test they had was a dual test for both Chlamydia and Gonorrhea (common, I'm told?) and it came back positive for Gonorrhea. I did some googling of it and there is some references to false positives (including some case in Hawaii with 5 women all getting false positives from the same test lab). My girlfriend is quite distraught right now, assuming that she somehow caught it from her old terrible BF from 4 years ago (he was unfaithful and cheated on her several times), and has just been asymptomatic all these years ("We've been broken up for 4 years, and still he's hurting me!").
I'm getting tested tomorrow (of course!), but I also have been completely asymptomatic. No itching, no pain, no secretions, same for her.
Another oddity is due to the country. In Japan, Gonorrhea is not all that common, while Chlamydia is disturbingly common. Based on my girlfriend's patients, she previously thought that basically 100% of all people that have Gonorrhea in Japan also have Chlamydia. Having it and NOT having Chlamydia (as her test results claim) is almost unheard of here (or at least at her clinic).
She wants to get treated ASAP (of course), but I'm making her get another test before she receives the treatment (we're going to go together and both get tested tomorrow).
4 years asymptomatic with no sexual partners for her, 7 years for me, no Chlamydia (which in Japan is almost always a given if you have Gonorrhea). Am I going off the deep end thinking that there's a chance this is a false positive? I'm not worried about this (Gonorrhea can be cured and we're both asymptomatic anyways), but if it was a false positive, I'm sure you know that we'll both feel better about it (she won't feel she's been carrying an unwanted gift from her old BF). Given our sexual history, I'm feeling like it's maybe a 50/50 shot that this is a false positive... but like many people on this site, I'm just seeking an opinion while we wait for our new test results...
Completely 100% asymptomatic for both me and her. She has no burning, no itching, no discharge, absolutely nothing. Same for me, not a single issue at all. I've read on other websites that sometimes Gonorrhea can be asymptomatic though...
well its possible, lets talk about your symptoms, u had no discharge? ghonorrea isnt asymptomatic u would know if u have it. ITS painful
Well, I've refined my searching terms for the forum and found other posts that are more or less similar to mine, stating that "Yes, a false positive is possible". Sorry for such a long post, I should have done a little more forum searching before posting. I will come back and post our test results when we know them.
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