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Should I worry about HSV-2 1.36?

Haven't had unprotected sex in 9 years. No symptoms whatsoever.
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Avatar universal
HSV-1 Negative. Was a IgG test.
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It's still a really, really low positive.

You have some choices here.

You can ignore it, given that you've had no symptoms, and assume it was a false positive.

You can get a confirmation Western Blot test. Your doctor can order this, or you can go through Terri Warren at Westover Heights Clinic - https://westoverheights.com/herpes/getting-a-western-blot/ If your doctor gives you any trouble with it, show him or her this -

https://www.cdc.gov/std/tg2015/herpes.htm

"The most commonly used test, HerpeSelect HSV-2 Elisa might be falsely positive at low index values (1.1–3.5) (334-336). Such low values should be confirmed with another test, such as Biokit or the Western blot (337)."

You can try another IgG, but it may just give you the same result.

There is no right or wrong answer. It's entirely up to you.

Doc gave me a order to get a Western Blot done.
That's fantastic! Seriously, a lot of docs don't understand this process, and I'm really happy to hear that your doctor does.

Let us know what happens. :)
Got retested with a HSV-2 Inhibition. Now the results have dropped to 1.09. Do I need to get a Western Blot for confirmation?
Didn't see my Dr, saw a Nurse Practitioner, sent to the lab with the wrong Western Blot work order and the it turned into a HSV-2 Inhibition test instead. So now I'm going to have to go outside of my Dr's to get a Western Blot done.
Then it*
Ugh I'm sorry.

1.09 is an equivalent result - neither positive nor negative. It's easy for me to say that I would treat it as a negative, since it isn't my body, not my sex life. My herpes tests were very definitively positive, and I didn't have this test confusion.

I'd suggest going to Terri Warren at Westover Heights. Not only will she be able to help you get the Western Blot, but she can help interpret all these results, and help you decide what to do next. It's not free, though, and you'll have to pay out of pocket.

Please let me know what you decide to do, and what happens. I'm sorry this is happening.



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Do you also have HSV1? Is that a IgG result or an IgM result?

Technically, according to the test manufacturers, that's a positive test result. However, according to most experts in the field, anything under a 3.5 needs to be confirmed, especially in the presence of a pre-existing hsv1 infection.

If it's an IgM test, ignore it completely. It's unreliable, and shouldn't ever be done on adults. (Many other IgM tests for other infections are reliable - for herpes, it's not.) If it's an IgM, and you have a negative IgG, act like the IgM wasn't even done.

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