Diagnosis and Treatments for Lyme Disease

2. Blood Testing

There is a two-step blood test available for Lyme disease, but blood testing is not always helpful in the first stage. It can take weeks for the antibodies to develop, and early blood tests can return a negative result. If your doctor suspects you have Lyme disease and the blood test is negative, they may repeat it in three or four weeks.

However, if you are treated for Lyme disease in the meantime, the test results will likely remain negative, even if you had an active Lyme infection. Even in later stages, blood tests for Lyme disease can be unreliable. A negative test does not always rule out Lyme disease, so doctors consider other factors, like health history, tick exposure risk, and symptoms.