Found out my partner is positive for HSV 1 & 2

[mil1209]

I am a man, and I just started a new relationship with a woman I had known as friends for 7 months. Recently we just started dating. She is a dentist. Anyway, we started having sex about a week ago, with me getting oral sex from her twice. All our sexual encounters were with a condom, except once, when I did penetrate her without any protection.

Then a few days later her test results came in and it said she was positive for HSV 1 & 2 IGG antibodies. The lab scale was: less than 0.90 is negative, 0.90 to 1.10 is equivocal, and over 1.10 is positive. My partner had 5.00 or greater for both HSV 1 and 2.

So, knowing this, and since I had unprotected sex with her that one time, does that mean I contracted HSV from her? What are my odds of having gotten that?

[mil1209]

OK thank you. Is the Elisa test more prone to false positives?

[Life360_Dave]

If a person takes an igg type specific test that states any number above 1.2 is positive and they get a 5 or a above, there are no false positives with higher numbers. False positive occur when the number is 3.5 and below. And to get a number like 1.8 would almost certainly be a false positive. The higher the number reaches 3.5 the less chance its a false positive test.
We dont measure viral load with herpes like with hiv.

[mil1209]

How common are false positives for IGG test? Should she get checked for viral count, instead of antibodies? Would a hihg antibody count be a definitive "yes" for having the Herpes virus (1 and 2)?

[mil1209]

Thanks for the information. She said she never had any sores on her fingers or hands. I looked at her vagina again a few hours ago, and saw no lesions or sores. Same thing no sores at her mouth. The lab we used was an independent one that didn't require a doctor's order. Could the lab results be incorrect?

[Life360_Dave]

With her not having any lip sores at the time, your risk for contacting hsv1 would be close to zero from a few affairs but the risk goes up the more your exposed unless you already have oral hsv1 as many people do.
Her hsv1 is almost certainly oral or in the case of dentists, it could be on her hand and is called Whitlow.
With hsv2 pretty much the same thing. With no genital sores your risk is quite low.
Just to be clear, most at risk for contracting herpes are in long term mono relationships where one person is infected..

The gray area is where she has the infections as she could acutally have both hsv1 and 2 on her hand. Dentists are at high risk for contacting it and some people do have oral hsv2. However i do doubt either are on her hand.

[mil1209]

Let me add that she told me she has never had any outbreaks, sores, or lesions, and I did not see any of that during our encounters. In fact, she didn't know she had Herpes until the test results came out, so it was a surprise to her as well.