Suppressive Therapy

[1manNC]

I'm a 32 year old male who was diagnosed with HSV in 2006.  I have had only the one outbreak after my diagnosis that was very mild.  Since then I have not had any outbreaks and have not had to use any medicine.  I am sexually active, but always used a condom during sexual intercourse with no issues.  I now am very interested in a young lady that I have not yet been intimate with, but it looks as though this will happen very soon.  I have been taking Valtrex 1G for the last two months, and felt I needed to based on the chance of becoming intimate with someone I really like and want a relationship with.  How effective is Valtrex when taken daily and preventing the spread of HSV?  How safe is my potential partner?  I will sit with her and talk to her about my diagnosis, but it's always good to know what the chances are.  Any help on this will be appreciated.

[gracefromHHP]

How were you diagnosed as having genital herpes? Do you know if you have hsv1 or hsv2? If not - then that's your next step. YOu and a partner can't make educated decions about what precautions to take together until you both know who has what. Has your partner been tested yet?  If not that also needs to be done.

Daily suppressive therapy with valtrex has been shown to reduce transmission of the virus by 50%.  

grace

[1manNC]

Hi Grace....I was never told whether it was HSV1 or 2......the doctor.....excuse me.....the nurse told me to take Valtrex and that it will help me.   I will make sure to find out exactly what type of herpes I have.    It would be nice to know how many folks out there on this message board have been successful in not passing on HSV to their parntners on this message board too.......please respond.

[gracefromHHP]

As far as I know I've never transmitted my hsv2 while on suppressive therapy.  I did transmit the virus 2x - the first time I had no idea I even had genital herpes and the 2nd time I had just recently found out I even had it, hadn't talked to my bf at the time about it and just tried to avoid sex during symptoms which didn't go so well and he ended up with it.  Was married for 10 years and he never contracted it and none of my other long term partners have contracted it from me.  Most of the other folks I know in discordant relationships who are educated on the virus have had the same luck.

grace

[1manNC]

Hi Grace........just got my results back today which confirmed HSV2.  What do I need to tell my potential partner?  I've been mentally preparing myself for it but just need to get some advice from you to help me through.  

[waringblender]

Do you know your potential partner's herpes status? She needs to get tested.

You can tell her exactly what you've told us here. That you have had genital herpes for a while now without any symptoms and so have not used medication. Now that you and she are discussing a sexual relationship, you realize that medication will help protect her. (She needs to get tested for both types.) Tell her that using condoms will also help protect her from infection.

Have you never discussed your herpes with your partners in the past? (No judgment, I'm just wondering, since you've had it so long, why you suddenly feel anxious about telling.) It's not really a big deal to mention it in the context of an overall discussion of STDs, testing and birth control, all of which needs to be discussed anyway. You'll do fine. Just be honest with her.

Give her links to the doctor side of the forum. What I have done with the last partner was bookmarked links from over there that were appropriate for our circumstances (discordant couples and rates of infection; oral sex rates of infection, etc.) and sent those to my guy so he could read himself about the statistics. The docs over there are really knowledgeable, and I can't think of a better place to have a negative person read about STDs than their posts over on the STD forum.

[kundaliniboy]

Hi Grace
I have herpes and I was devastated when I found out 2 years ago, I think I have tried everything on the market, some work okay, and some didn’t work at all. My main concern was to continue eating medical that I did not knowing what would be the effect of long term use.  I tried to find a natural herbal alternative and tried many and finally I tested Alviralco and it worked, total natural. I just want to share this with you and tell you that there is hope and alternative, you just have to keep looking.
Regards Bob

[gracefromHHP]

There are no long term side effects to any of the 3 herpes antivirals.  Nothing to fear there. We have 25+ years worth of info on acyclovir alone to prove this.  

Not sure how you were using herpes antivirals and why they didn't work for you but for the vast majority of folks with genital herpes they will work and will significantly reduce ob's as well as significantly reduce viral shedding in general to help protect a partner.

there is nothing listed in Alviralco that has been shown to be effective for herpes in studies in humans.  Glad it worked for you but it's not anything I'd ever personally recommend that anyone try.  Also until they can show me that it has any affect on viral shedding - it's not worth my time either. Also at $60/bottle - yikes!!  

grace

[waringblender]

You are going to have herpes the rest of your life if  you are infected. Therefore, it makes sense to use the least expensive, most effective treatment out there (if you want to treat it). Right now, that treatment is acyclovir. I'm currently paying 17$ for  3 months' worth of acyclovir at the local Costco (that's 180 tablets). The cost through my health care provider is about 30$  for the same amount (even that is low at 10$ per month). it makes absolutely no sense to use more expensive treatments that haven't been studied in clinical trials and therefore have no known efficacy.