My doctor told me that there are some people that get 1-4 break outs a year and some people that just stop and dont get break outs anymore !
what testing did you have done to confirm herpes? do you have hsv1 or hsv2 genitally?
on average for hsv2, it's 4-6 ob's a year. one study showed that after 5 years of being infected, 25% of folks had less ob's, 25% had more and the rest all had about the same on average.
If your partner doesn't have herpes, the number of ob's a year is meaningless other than your own comfort sake. The virus still sheds about the same regardless if you have 0 ob's a year or 10. Just putting that out there.
grace
Thanks for the responses.
I never had any blood work done to confirm the type of herpes. I live in Germany and that doesn't seem to be common practice here. So I guess I'll assume that it's probably HSV2 since HSV1 affecting the genital area is much less common.
I don't have a partner so basically I'm just wondering for myself.
Anymore comments would be appreciated!
you can get type specific herpes igg blood testing done in germany. you also can get a lesion culture of active symptoms with typing to confirm infection. you and a partner can't make educated decisions about precautions until you know who has what so it's worth confirming infection as well as type.
fyi - hsv1 genitally is incredibly common throughout the world. I have no idea where you read otherwise.