Equivocal syphilis result from booking bloods. Nightmare!

[Tryingtofindagriptogetholdof]

Posting to vent and see if anyone else in the world has been through this.
Booking bloods done later than ideally should have been at 11+ weeks.
Dating scan bloods done at 12 weeks and came back fine so didn't give the earlier bloods a second thought.
Fast forward 2 weeks and I got a call in the evening asking to see me at the hospital at my earliest convenience. Well, when I was told that my initial blood tests for hiv/syphilis/whatever else they check for etc had come back showing an equivocal result I nearly fell of my chair.

Apparently, even though the further analysis done all indicates towards a negative result, they needed to repeat the test to get a conclusive result. And low and behold, the second test has come back equivocal and now been sent on for further analysis.

Neither of us have a particularly risky sexual history and I'm finding the whole episode completely mortifying. It's also meant the support I'd normally reach for from friends and family is cut off as I cannot bring myself to explain what the potential implications are of my "extra appointments".

Everyone I have spoken to at the hospital has tried to reassure me that it is highly unlikely and more probable to be a reaction of my blood from the weird wonders of changes during pregnancy. That does not however, stop myself and my husband feeling completed revolted, terrified and completely crushed at the idea of one of us having potentially put our child at risk of congenital syphilis.

If anyone has any experience of this I'd love to hear from you. Waiting in limbo and also being informed that the community midwives who are meant to be looking after my antenatal care have been recording unproven results in my online notes is sending my anxiety through the roof!

I do these tests at work and the fact that further testing has shown a negative result means it is negative.
The first test is a screening test, unfortunately they are sometimes liable to interference from some weird and wonderful substances in the blood, completely unrelated and non -harmful things that send the tests a bit awry.
The further tests are more specific and give a more 'true' result.
There are a range of tests for syphillis, unfortunately the screening test is the one that most often gives false results. It's not common but it happens. Please try not to worry. There are several further tests they can do to rule it out, but they take a while (a few weeks).

Thank you for your reassurance, I think it's the waiting and the not knowing that is driving us nuts. What I'd like to know is if the screening test is liable to give a false positive, why do they repeat the same test when it can (and has) come back again with an inconclusive result?

On an aside note, the specialists I have seen since this headache began have been fantastic in their capacity to spend time explaining things to us and getting us in quickly. The whole thing just feels so yuck and taboo.

They repeat because they always do the first test first. Also, lots of times the first test might be a bit weird but a re-test is negative. You've obviously got something in your blood that the test doesn't like, nothing harmful or even relevant, but something that's making the test think you have Syphillis antibodies. I know the wait for the reference lab results seems like forever but I'm sure they they will put your mind at rest once they're back.
I had a similar thing myself. I had my Hep B vaccination and then had the test to check my antibody level. It's meant to be greater than 100 if you're immune, mine came back as 4!
I was really pissed off, thought I'd have to have more vaccinations, worried that I'd been exposed to Hep B, worried that there was some reason I wasn't making antibodies (if you've had Hep B in the past you won't make antibodies to the vaccine),
So I had another blood test and it was fine, the level was about 900.
Re-tested the original sample and it was still 4. Weird. It was definitely my blood, but for some reason, on that day, my blood was being awkward.
The tests are good, but not 100% exact, nothing can be.

I second what Germgirl said! I have a blood clotting disorder and am looked after in an obstetric haematology clinic so they know a bit about the weird and wonderful things blood can do! I'm sure I was told by my consultant that certain (completely unrelated) antibodies in your blood can throw back a false positive result for syphilis.

Second bloods came back today showing a second initial positive but the specific testing as negative. The consultant and virologist(?) have both now said they think it should highly likely that it's a chemical reaction showing a false positive and that syphilis is very doubtful.

My husband has now also been tested and come back as negative, which adds to the reassurance that there is no infection. However in order for the pregnancy to progress and be treated "normally" at labour and birth, they will ask to repeat for a third time at my 20 week scan.

So it's looking positive, but I feel like the joy has been sapped out of half my pregnancy due to something that isn't there.

So sorry that you've had this hassle. The repeat results look very promising.
Something in your blood is making the test think you have syphillis antibodies but you don't, the further testing is showing that.
Sadly antibody testing is not a totally exact science, in very basic terms the test is looking for something with a certain shape, if you have something in your blood that is that shape, or very close, it will 'activate' the test to say it's positive, but in your case it's not the syphillis antibody that's doing it, it's something completely unrelated.
Please try to put this behind you, I know that's hard but try to enjoy the rest of your pregnancy.

Hi there
I know this post was nearly 3 years ago now but was wondering what the outcome was in the end as exactly the same has happened to me and I completely understand how you were feeling. Its completely drained me for the last 6 weeks and It’s been really hard to find any incidents of this so was pleased to find your post.
Hope everything worked out
Many thank