My boyfriends blood test supposedly came back that he has herpes but not had an outbreak. I went to the doc Tuesday with something I thought was a spider bite and doc says its herpes. I told my boyfriend about it so he went to get tested. He called me today and said that the doc told him that he is not contagious but was exposed to the herpes virus. Is this true? Would I have had it for years not knowing and gave it to him?

The doctor's message is confusing. I'm guessing he's giving mis-information like so many doctor's are.

I think the doc probably ran an IgM test. Many doctor's think that the IgM blood test is a good test to determine if someone has been "exposed" to the virus. This is incorrect. The IgM test is useless - many people come back positive when in fact they don't have herpes, and vice-versa. This is because the test is for many different kinds of anti-bodies.

The test you want your boyfriend to take is the IgG Type Specific test. If he gets a positive result on this, then he has herpes. The test is accurate to within about 3 - 4 months. So if he got the virus within the last few months, his test might still show negative.

It is not possible to have the virus and not be communicable. If you have it, you can spread it, and you are contagious. Regardless of whether you ever show a symptom.