Hello! I have what I think is an unusual situation.  In 2003, I was diagnosed with genital herpes by my gp. I think they swabbed a lesion but I don't remember. It was twenty years ago. I do remember a phone call from the doctor telling me I was positive. That doctor's office is no longer open and the records are not available. My partner and future wife had herpes (she had blood work that confirmed this) so I did not question the diagnosis and I took Valtrex intermittingly when I thought I was having an outbreak. My wife and I divorced last year and this spring I went to get an STD test from a clinic which came back negative for HSV 1 and 2. I retested five weeks later, which was also negative.  My GP ordered a new blood test at a hospital which was also negative and told me that the original diagnosis must have been inaccurate.  She said that my "outbreaks" of one or two pimple like bumps were probably folliculitis. I had one bump swabbed and it came back negative. I tested one more time when I started having sex with a new partner, which was also negative. I understand that herpes is surrounded by cultural stigma, however I also want to practice safe sex. I am otherwise healthy. I also want to stay off Dr. Google which has inconclusive things to say about IGG blood tests. With these contradictory testing results (and the fuzziness of memory), should I get a Western blot/DNA test and if so, should I contact an infectious disease specialist or urologist? Thanks!

Hello.  I am just following up with a reply to make sure that my question wasn't overlooked.  Thank you!

Sorry, we are out of the country and my responses are a bit delayed---

Thank you. Do you know why, and for that matter how often, IgG tests produce false negatives multiple times?

It is due to the inability of the test to accurate identify and pick up HSV antibody proteins.  Sometimes it picks up other proteins and says they are herpetic and other times, because it relies on picking up a single antibody protein to identify infection, it misses it.  The western blot looks for all 16 antibody proteins and 4 must be present to be called positive, so it is much better.---

Thank you for the information about the test.  My question is why would the IgG tests miss the antibody protein in an individual? Is it that the antibody was never produced or something else? I'm also curious about how to convince my provider/gp to order further tests. 

It is more likely that it is a function of the test, because we know the IgG misses 8% of HSV 2 but these same infections are picked up by the western blot, which is also an antibody test.  So we know these people have antibody.  ---