HSV 2 blood test results in the grey area! twice! what does it mean?

[walterfane02]

I am 29, have recently suffered from shingles and treated with Acyclovir. During my infection, the urologist ran a blood test to look for antibodies of other types of herpes. The first test result came as follow:

HSV 1 : IgG = 163 U/ml , IgM = 23 U/ml
HSV 2 : IgG = 17 U/ml , IgM = N/A U/ml
(reference: positive > 20, negative  20, negative  20, negative  20, negative  20, negative  20, negative  20, negative  20, negative < 16, uncertain between 16 and 20)

Since HSV 2 came in the grey area again, he said I should ignore it because I never had symptoms of Genital Herpes.

My question: can it be that my recent shingles (zoster) gave this grey reading of HSV 2 ? should I repeat the test for the third time or just forget about the whole thing?

If I am carrying HSV 2 I would like to know and warn my partner.

Please advise.

[feelingundone]

Don't worry about hsv2. There will be deviation in every test and the fact you have had shingles and hsv1 means hsv2 tests can get cross over from the other antibodies. This is common.

[walterfane02]

Because of the uncertainty about HSV 2 reading, the doctor suggested to repeat the test. So we took another blood test after 3 weeks. Here is how it came:

HSV 1 : IgG = 176 U/ml , IgM = 33 U/ml
HSV 2 : IgG = 19 U/ml , IgM = N/A U/ml
(reference: positive > 20, negative  20, negative  20, negative  20, negative < 16, uncertain between 16 and 20)