In October my wife had a rash on her butt and swollen lymph nodes. She went to see her OBGYN and he said it was definitely herpes. He also took a culture and bloodwork. Both the culture and bloodwork came back negative.

Just to play it safe I went and got my bloodwork done. My Igm came back positive, but Igg is negative.

My wife is now pregnant and she is very concerned. She got bloodwork again 15 weeks later which again came back negative. The doctor said that if she develops another outbreak she may need to abort the pregnancy if she does not have the antibodies.

So my question is, is there any chance that my wife has herpes, but did not develop any antibodies? Is there any cause for concern here, or is the possibility higher that the original diagnoses was incorrect?

Thanks for your help!

Here's the most important answer you need:

There is absolutely NO REASON to abort a pregnancy due to Herpes!!

That's the silliest (not to say stupidist and unnecessarily alarming) thing I've heard in a long time. Put both yours and your wife's mind at rest. Millions of women have delivered happy, healthy babies even though they have herpes - regardless of whether they've had it for years or a month. Put this out of your mind.

If your wife has herpes, she will develop antibodies. They will then be present in her blood for life. Generally, it takes 3 - 4 months post exposure for a blood test to come back positive for antibodies. Rarely up to 6 months. I would think that if your wife's bloodwork is coming back negative at 15 weeks, that's likely accurate.

A negative culture is not unusual, even for someone who really does have herpes. The culture needs to be taken while the lesions are still fresh, usually within about 48 hours. So if her rash was too old, she could have got a false negative culture. False positive's don't happen, false negative's do.

An IgM test is useless and a waste of money. It tests for antibodies, but not antibodies specific to herpes. You may come up positive because you are fighting a cold and have developed antibodies against that virus. The IgG test is the one you want to pay attention to. If your test came back negative, and you haven't been exposed to anything (that you know of) in the last 4 months, that's probably correct. The IgG test is VERY accurate for a timeframe outside that 3 - 4 months.

So to answer your question... based on the second round of negative tests - I think that the original diagnoses was likely off. A rash can be lots of things. Because I've been a paranoid pregnant woman, have your wife take the test again in 2 months - just to be absolutely sure. But she's likely fine.

As a note, if she DID have herpes, just make sure the OB/Gyn knows. He/she will put her on Valtrex about a month before delivery. This will prevent any outbreaks, which allows for a vaginal delivery. Most doctors will do a C-section if Mom is having an active outbreak. Otherwise, the chances of passing the virus to a newborn through the birth canal are about 0.05%. If I were you, I'd yell at the doctor who told you you might have to abort!!