advice

anyone have any advice for me? i have had herpes for 16 yrs. aside from the first few years, i generally only get 1-3 outbreaks a year and they are mild (clear up in 1-2 days, very small, minimal weeping). i used to only get outbreaks if i was very, very stressed *and* fatigued. i started suppressive therapy 2 years ago (valacyclovir 500mg tab daily), with the comment by my ob to take "as needed." so i was taking a pill a day maybe 3-6 days a week. my partner does not have herpes, so i am trying to be unbelievably, amazingly careful. i even started taking licorice pills and lyseine tabs from time to time. yet, just recently, i had a week where i was not only stressed, but fantastically tired (i work 12 hour night shifts) and i got 4 "boo boos" simultaneously. each one was actually very mild (not even itchy or weeping), but the fact that i had 4, when i generally get only one 99% of the time, made me wonder what i was doing wrong. for the record, i am also into vitamins and lots of antioxidants and this past week i have not been taking them as regularly as i usually do. i also exercise 2-4x a week and had only minimal exercise this week also.  i thought my immune system was collapsing. does anyone have any thoughts on the subject?

[gracefromHHP]

valtrex doesn't work if you only take it a few days a week. if you are taking it supprsesively to protect a partner, you need to take it every single day no matter what.  

lysine doesn't do much at all for herpes. we don't recommend supplementing with it.  

licorice pills have not been shown to do anything for herpes either.  

no other vitamins or supplements that have been shown to do anything to reduce ob's and/or viral shedding.

at this point you should be seen and get a proper exam done. Make sure that indeed what is going on is all herpes related. also ask them to test you for yeast and bacterial vaginal infections too.  It's not unusual for vaginitis to trigger a herpes recurrence and even one that is more extensive than usual.

do you recall how you were originally diagnosed as having genital herpes? have you  had any further testing for herpes since then?

grace

[mo77479]

   i see an ob/gyn every year, but i (usually) rarely have outbreaks, so my practitioner has never seen my lesions. while i don't have any infections (i am familiar w/ the s/s of various kinds- odor, d/c), i have been using some very synthetic soaps down there that i never use (stuff w/ lots of dyes and scents- i usually use my own homemade soaps)- could i have a sort of irritated reaction? i don't mean to be weird, but i thought i read somewhere mechanical irritation could sometimes trigger outbreaks (friction from running several miles, copious sweating over several hours)- what do you think?
i was initially diagnosed by the nurse swabbing the lesion i had....i was young and not even in nursing school yet, so i wasn't too savvy as to what was going on....
is it possible that the on again/off again valtrex taking somehow makes the outbreaks worse?
thanks for all the info- it's so difficult to have a problem like this!

[gracefromHHP]

did you also know that 1/2 of all bv infections are asymptomatic?  that's why I always recommend going for testing for vaginitis when someone's herpes is being problematic.  BV especially has been shown to make hsv2 more active so it's well worth ruling out.

could you have just irritated things so much down yonder that it triggered a humdinger of a recurrence?  Well you could've but that's why  being seen to make sure that indeed it is all herpes going on is well worth the effort.  

might be well worth following up with a type specific herpes igg blood test too at some point just to make sure you have hsv2 genitally. odds are your lesion culture wasn't typed 16 years ago so it's worth confirming at some point with the blood testing.

the way you were taking valtrex just wasn't doing a lot to control the virus ( including shedding ). it wasn't really a "bad" thing to take it the way you were, just it's not doing what you want it to do.  make sense?

[mo77479]

well i am very disappointed in my ob for telling me i could take valtrex that way. i had never been on any meds exceot acyclovir when i was going into labor. so, i remember thinking "wow- what a great drug valtrex is" too bad.
i never cared about outbreaks before, since they were so mild and my ex had it. now that my bf doesn't have it i am just scared silly i will give it to him.
we have been having alot of those..er...honeymoon type dates, so it is possible there is too
much activity going on down there (esp at my age!).
i appreciate the info- it really helps!

[gracefromHHP]

are you using lube?

[mo77479]

actually, no!  i always seemed to w/ my ex, but haven't been w/ the new guy and now that you mention it, i *do* sometimes get the feeling that i should be kinder  to the womanly bits!  i'm glad you wrote it- that's definitely a possibility.
as long as you are being so generous with your time. may i ask- do you have any feelings about vitamins/general nutritional health? i run 2-3x a week and here in texas in the summer it gets to 95-100 degrees. i have been doing this for 4 yrs now and am doing fine. however, i take a break every mile or so and have a few ounces of "zip-fizz" or their immune drink (similar composition). they are filled w/ lots of vitamins, esp c- and lately i hadn't been running and have been bad on the vitamins. do you think that maybe w/out my usual doses of antioxidants (and the fatigue), my immune system went down?

[gracefromHHP]

no I do not. most of the vitamins we take in are in excess and we just pee them all out.  eating your veggies does a heck of a lot more to keep you healthy than anything you drink or supplement with  as well as your running keeps your immune system healthy :)