Hi doc.  No, you don't need to wait for an outbreak to get tested.

The cheapest and easiest way to test for herpes, and to do the
typing, is during an outbreak, via a culture, which involves getting
actual virus onto a swab and into the testing culture.  Cultures are
not always successful, however, for a variety of reasons, so while a
positive result is accurate and informative, the test suffers from a
high rate of false negatives (meaning it says you don't have it when
you really do.)

But there are blood test, too, that are nearly as reliable when
they're positive and can be trusted more when they return negative
results, too.

The one thing to be careful of with blood tests is to wait 12 - 16
weeks after possible exposure to HSV, because almost all the tests
look for antibodies to HSV, which need time to build up in the body.
If you think you've had the disease for any appreciable length of
time then that won't be a factor.

It wasn't always true, but now there are a number of blood tests on
the market, and not all of them will be carried by every doctor.  

The best one, and one of the more expensive, can only be obtained by
having your doc send away, to the Univeristy of Washington, in
Seattle, for the test kit, which gets mailed back to Seattle,
processed, and the results returned to your doc.

That would be the Western Blot, with info here:

http://depts.washington.edu/rspvirus/HerpesWesternBlot.htm

I put that one first, but naturally, your doctor or clinic or
hospital will have one of the other tests.  Most of these are called
ELISAs, and some of the older ones aren't very good at typing, or
telling you whether you have HSV1 or HSV2.  If you are interested in
knowing which type you have, you need to make sure you ask whether
or not the test that will be done is "type specific".   It is
recommended that you get a type specific test.  

I admit, I haven't been keeping up with new test developments, but
one of the newer tests is the HerpeSelect, and if it's not already
available in your area, your doc can order it up, I believe.

HerpeSelect info is here:

http://babyurl.com/rBw1UT

If you need more info, or help, or have other questions, please ask.

Take care,

Mike

A culture is the best way to associate a specific outbreak with a
specific type. But a culture requires ... well ... an outbreak.
Cultures are notorious for false negatives though.  A blood test, on
the other hand, can look for antibodies even without an outbreak.
Problem is, a blood test can't tell you where your infection is and it
might not detect antibodies of a recent infection (less than 12-16
weeks) so could also result in a false negative.

But all you can do without an outbreak is to try a blood test.  If
you've had a genital outbreak before and your blood test comes back
positive only for Type 2, chances are your outbreak was type 2 ...
(spoiler being the chance that it was due to a recent type 1 infection
that the blood test missed). Same reasoning applies to Type 1 only.
But if it comes back positive for both type1 AND type 2, you won't
have a definite answer to your question (outbreak could have been
either type) but at least you'll know more than you did before about
your hsv status.

M2