Hi Doctor, 

I should add that the encounter I am worried about happened in November of 2021 (more than a year ago). 

If the IgM is positive but the IgG is negative, completely ignore the IgM.  In my experience, the IgM has about an 85-90% false positive result.  the IgG test picks up 92% of HSV 2 infections compared to the gold standard herpes western blot and picks up 70% of HSV 1 infections compared to the western blot.  So it's not too bad for HSV 2, but poor for HSV 1.---

Got it, thank you! I reached out to my Dr and they were able to cancel the IGM, so I do not have to worry about it anymore. For my own edification though: I had 2 other unprotected encounters since the encounter I listed, although they are not the encounters I was worried about. Both were in early-mid December 2022 with the same person (but a different person from the other encounter in Nov 2021). If I hadn’t been able to cancel the IGM, and had gotten a positive result, would I still have been able to disregard it (considering I received a negative IGG result)?

Yes, you should still disregard it.  I'm glad you were able to stop it from being run---

Thank you Nurse Warren. One more quick question: The test order stated "Herpes Simplex Virus, Type Specific 1/2 IGG" and the test name listed on the results result read as "HSV (1+2) IGG Serum". Is this different from an Elisa test, and if so, is it still reliable? My provider said they "initially go through Healthlab" but the samples are then sent to Quest and then results are returned to my provider. Thanks! 

No, it's the same and is sort of reliable, though any of the IgG type tests have false positives and false negatives.  They are not in any way completely reliable.  div>