Valtrex Suppressive Treatment

I don't think this question has been asked before but my apologies if it has.

Q: If I take Valtrex 500mg every 2nd day will it be effective as suppressive treatment?

Also, if I take Valtrex 500mg every day for the forseeable future are there any risks? i.e. kidney/liver problems down the track etc?

Thanks.

[gracefromHHP]

you need to take valtrex daily in order for it to work. it is short acting and doesn't linger in the body to take every other day.

if money is an issue, switch to acyclovir instead - it's way cheaper!

[petal130]

You can read more about treatment, and genital herpes in general, in the Herpes Handbook, here:

http://www.westoverheights.com/genital_herpes/handbook/view_the_chapters.html

Here are the dosages for Valtrex:

Recurrent outbreaks: 500 mg twice a day for three days.
Suppression: 1000 mg once a day for people who have 10 or more outbreaks per year. 500 mg once a day for people who have 9 or fewer outbreaks per year.  It is taken every day.

There are no long term risks from taking Valtrex/herpes anti-virals.

[gracefromHHP]

you need to take valtrex daily in order for it to work. it is short acting and doesn't linger in the body to take every other day.

if money is an issue, switch to acyclovir instead - it's way cheaper!

[Ryan_11]

Thanks Grace/petal. Money is not an issue so I will start taking it everyday.
I just don't like the thought as I wouldn't like to be dependent on any drug especially taking an antiviral everyday. However I suppose the positives (no outbreaks) out weigh the negatives.

If I could also ask, if I'm on it everyday (500mg) for say the next 10 years could it have any adverse effects? reduced kidney/liver function? dependency (i.e. more outbreaks if I stopped it after a long period of time) etc?

[gracefromHHP]

if your doctor told you that you had high blood pressure and you needed to start taking medication every day, would you say, oh no thank you?  herpes infection is a medical condition that you don't have to treat ( thankfully ) but if you do, makes you have less recurrences so that there are less interruptions in your sex life as well as if you take it every single day, reduces transmission to a partner by 1/2 which is significant. It's not being dependent on a medication, it's giving you a better quality of life as well as protecting a partner - both of which are important.

there are no long term effects to being on daily suppressive therapy that we are aware of at this point. They've been following a group of folks who have been taking acyclovir suppressively for 25+ years now and they have no issues. I myself have been taking herpes antivirals for that long now, both suppressively and episodically and as far as I know, don't have any long term effects either.

the herpes virus is still just as active while you are on suppressive therapy as if you weren't.  the virus still replicates regularly, it's just when you are on suppressive therapy, it disrupts the replication process when you take the medication dose to keep it minimal so it doesn't progress to shedding of the virus on the skin's surface or to full blown recurrences as often.  make sense at all?

[Ryan_11]

Makes a lot of sense. Thanks for your advise, its much appreciated.