What the frick!!!

[sellthebigissue]

Name changed for this.

I am pregnant and ive just had a phonecall from the screen team after my booking bloods. All okay except, sonce my last baby in november 2024 and now ive had a syphilis infection. My blood results with last baby were negative. And now positive.

Ive not had sex with anyone other than my partner and im freaking out. All the other ways of catching it, aside from sex, would not fit me. I.never go out anywhere, I dont inject drugs ect.

What are the chances of it being a false positive or am I looking at the fact my partner may have cheated?

Any help would be great.

Looks like it depends what type of test they've done but the odds of a false positive are actually fairly high. Could be nearly five times more likely to be a false positive than a true positive.
Talk to your partner, you're probably okay but I'm sure he'll understand why you're panicking.

From a large study in the US (population of 75000 women): "Positive initial syphilis screens were documented for 221 women (183 FP and 38 TP), for an FP rate of 243.8 cases per 100,000 pregnancies and a TP rate of 50.6 cases per 100,000"
consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/rising-syphilis-rates-prompt-study-of-screening-diagnosis-and-treatment-of-pregnant-patients

Thank you so much for replying.
I have spoken to him and he hasn't done anything. Honestly, ive no idea where he'd get the time. We're together all the time, he works from home and does his fair share with the 5 soon to be 6 kids that we have. Including the night time feeds.

I have the hospital at 10am tomorrow for an extra blood test but the midwife seems to think its a false aswell. I guess they are just trying to be safe.

Glad you're feeling better. Really seems like the kind of thing they should tell you at the same time as the results!

It’s a screening test, depending on which test they’ve done, as PP said can be a high chance of false positive. The results can sometimes be tricky to interpret (ie, midwives don’t usually know how) and it can often need someone from sexual health or infectious diseases to look at things and figure out whether it’s definitely false positive or not; sometimes you need extra follow up blood tests.
for you it sounds very much like it’s going to be false positive so try not to worry too much and just go step by step. Good luck!

Thanks so much

Honestly i have been racking my brains. I know its treatable etc but how the hell would i have caught it. The only way it would have been humanly possible was if someone that has sores when I was giving birth touched me. Or used an infected needle and realistslly what are the chances of that?

Its driven me mad but ill get the extra blood test to confirm yes or no. Ill be a medical phenomenon if ive caught it.

Thought id update incase anyone else finds themselves in this wild situation. I dont have syphilis and i never did. It was a false positive.