herpes

what do you recommend. there are a lot of different types of medications . how about red aglee or any natural stuff. versus valtrex.

[gracefromHHP]

red algae wasn't shown to have any effect on herpes in humans. In the petri dish sure it looked promising - then again in the petri dish - even soap is effective against herpes.

To me if you are in a discordant relationship ( one partner has hsv2 , the other doesn't ) your money is best spent on a herpes antiviral. If you have good insurance or can afford it - go with valtrex. You can't beat the convenience of once daily dosing and it's probably a little better drug than famvir ( longer time until shedding resumes when taking it suppressively ).  Famvir is now generic but still pricey. You have to take it twice a day. Some doc's prefer it but it's really not worth the price and twice a day effort unless you don't seem to be getting good results from valtrex/acyclovir.  Acyclovir is the original oral herpes antiviral and is available as a cheap generic.  You have to take it twice a day but to me - it's well worth it for the difference in price ( yep I"m just as poor as everyone else! ).  The reason I recommend the antivirals so highly is - they not only effectively reduce the number of ob's you have - they also effectively reduce viral shedding which is the real issue in a discordant relationship.  I'm a fan of putting your money where you get the  most out of it!!!

If you don't have a partner or both partners have hsv2 so that transmission isn't an issue - if you want to waste money on other treatments go for it. In the 8 years I've been doing the support boards I've yet to see any product that consistantly works for everyone. Most of them are far more expensive/time consuming than generic acyclovir to boot.

grace