u/Fantastic_Pear_7509

Just reading through some of the posts and I can empathize with rejection post disclosure. I am quite honestly on the fence about dating in general because of this which may sound dramatic but… to each their own

And while I understand why someone may not want to risk being infected with said virus and move on after you disclose, I can’t help but wonder how many of those same folks are walking around positive themselves and have no idea. That has to be common , but you’ll never know. Just a thought I had today.

I see a lot of people saying that they wait x amount of weeks post possible exposure to test, asymptomatic or not. I understand that you can end up with a false negative if you were exposed and test too early. However, it is also to my understanding that HSV can remain dormant in the body initially and then suddenly activate and cause an outbreak etc etc so you don’t actually know when you got infected. As in, if you had 2 partners over the course of 5 years and you got an outbreak today, you may assume your most recent partner is whom you got it from. But in fact you may have gotten it from partner 1 and had no symptoms and started displaying symptoms once with partner 2 for whatever reason….. is that correct?

So I tested positive (HSV2 ) last year. It completely flipped my world upside down. I talked briefly to my dr about it and they explained how HSV in general are not routine tests because of how common it is and because I was low risk etc etc. so this positive result ( as I felt I had an all over body infection she thought she would test me to be sure which i did not have at the time but brought up in case it came back, how to proceed.)… the issue is.. I stumbled across medical journals and cases literally today… talking about how HSV2 specifically igG tests are unreliable and flag as false positives up to 50% of the time…. And follow up testing is usually advised and more likely if there are other viruses the body was exposed to or autoimmune disorders that create high antibody levels that cross react with the test… well I have an autoimmune disorder. I know my antibody levels are always high every time I have been checked in the past and as I thought about it, I have tested positive for things like tuberculosis when I never had that or other things as well… so is it possible this was a false positive too? I don’t want to have false hope, but it never occurred to me that this could be a factor and the dr who ordered the test (obgyn) has no history of my autoimmune disease as I see my primary and rheumatologist for that…. Is it worth asking about?? Is it worth ordering additional testing? I read that a western blot test could be more accurate as it looks for specific antibodies for the disease ( or pcr if you have active lesions) but I do not and really have not since that weird full body flare. I recall exactly it being well over 100, the type of clothing I was wearing was tight and irritating. I was stuck working all day and I had inflammation and redness everywhere. But it came and went all over for a bit as I didnt seek treatment and I know with my condition I am heat sensitive and that is when I have always noticed flares get the worst coupled with heat rash. And I have had things like that and other weird skin things for a long time so it’s not “unusual “ more like I brought it up because of it being widespread and it went to my lower body and is typically my upper body affected although ive had blisters or boils appear on my arms once that never occurred again etc. So is it that “hey the first HSV outbreak is the worst” or is it “hey it’s your autoimmune system is going haywire as you battle this skin irritation/infection”..? I wondered why none of my other std tests would reflect that if that was the case but I just confirmed they were all pcr’s which is recommended testing for anyone with autoimmune disease.,I just don’t know if it is worth digging deeper into. I mean I guess if I did follow up and it was negative it would be a weight off my shoulders but if it was still positive… well hey Ive been living with the first result this whole time so… has anyone dealt with this before? Am I just wasting my time?..:also just want it noted that since all that and being diagnosed I hadn’t had a outbreak or inflammation or anything since.. i mean I have regular flare ups of pain and random rash on face and chest but not to the degree of that summer day and my dr was convinced with my autoimmune disorder that it was likely I’d experience recurring outbreaks and advised taking valcyclovir daily.. but I have not as I never had any issues.. it just seems like such an “on the fence” game that I hate to even be playing..