Question about test results

About 12 years ago, I tested positive for HSVII. I was devastated and was depressed for a long time. I didn't have classic symptoms so I wanted a retest but it would cost a few hundred bucks, money I didn't have at the time. Fast forward about nine years later. I finally have some decent health insurance and I get tested again, but this time the results were NEGATIVE!!! I was like, what??? I got tested a second time about three months later and that turned out to be negative as well! I also had a swab test done on what I had thought was how herpes expressed itself in my body (small paper cuts) and that came out negative as well. Well, those negative tests were about two years ago and I thought I was going to start a new relationship so I decided to get tested again for everything (with some persistence because a lot of health professionals strongly discourage herpes tests). Unfortunately, it came back positive again. So what do you think is happening? Why did I get a positive, then two negatives (plus a negative swab), then a positive again??? My tests were IGG type-specific tests using a the BioPlex machines. My health professional is referring me to an Infectious Disease doctor to help me figure out what is going on but I haven't gotten the call for the appointment yet. Thanks for any insights.

What was your index score on the positive IGG test?

That is so bizarre but I've heard of it happening.

I've read somewhere that sometimes the antibodies become undetectable...weird.

The kind of test I got only says it's positive/negative - no numerical values. The infectious disease doctor says that it's possible that my antibody count became so low that it wasn't detectable by the test if I wasn't having an outbreak. However, my understanding is that the virus is always active even if you aren't having an outbreak so you will always have antibodies. Am getting a western blot soon to sort this out.

This makes me wonder if you were originally given an IgM test (unreliable) or other older test which gave you a false positive. I can't even imagine thinking I had HSV for 12 years if I really didn't. I too would get a western blot to confirm the recent IgG test once and for all. Good luck!

It was an IGG type specific test. Bioplex tests apparently have similar reliability as Herpes Select although they don't provide numerical ranges. But I understand that if I had a test that gave numerical values, I might have fallen into the equivocal range which is why I am pursuing the Western Blot. Apparently, for some folks, there is a protein that is similar to the hsv antibody but is not hsv which might be tripping up the test for some folks.