Acyclovir and genital herpes

[morgan315]

I was told I had genital herpes 3 days ago. The outbreak started about 6 days ago. This is the first outbreak and it's extremely painful. The Dr gave me Acyclovir to take for 7 days. How long will it take for it to stop hurting? How long will it take for the Acyclovir to work?

[gracefromHHP]

Meanwhile, be sure to read the free herpes handbook by Terri Warren if you haven't already. It offers up to date information on herpes as well as suggestions for pain control while you are waiting for your lesions to heal. It doesn't matter which medication you use for your herpes, it seems like FOREVER while you are waiting for the pain to stop :(  There are things you can try to help with the pain until the antivirals kick in and start to speed healing.

you will feel better soon :)

[HowardH]

atypical's comments are accurate, i.e. recurrent outbreaks tend to be much milder than the primary infection. But your main at this point is obviously the severity of the symptoms you're having now, which is the only issue I tried to address above. You can cross the bridges of recurrent outbreaks and suppressive therapy in the future. (The need depends on virus type -- if you're lucky and have HSV1 instead of HSV2, you probably will have few recurrences, maybe none, and probably won't need suppressive therapy.)

[atypical2015]

Genital herpes is incredibly common. Because most people have such mild symptoms, millions of people don't even know they have it. For most it's not a big deal in terms of how it affects their health. Sounds like you are one of the minority who experiences much more painful primary symptoms. Rest assured that if this is your first outbreak, you are almost certaint o find that outbreaks in the future are much milder and less uncomfortable. After a year or two, the symptoms tend to subside a lot--you will have fewer outbreaks and the outbreaks might be very mild in comparison to the one you are experiencing now.

Acyclovir is most effective taken in advance of the outbreak. It might shorten your current outbreak a little, but once it has flared up like that, generally it has to run its course over 7 to 10 days.

If you get future outbreaks at all, you might find that you start to notice early symptoms when an outbreak is imminent. That is the best time to take acyclovir to greatly shorten or even eliminate the full outbreak. Some people find they go on a regular dose of daily acyclovir as a suppressive measure. But as mentioned, most people don't find that the symptoms are severe enough to warrant suppressive medication.

In short, you're not alone. You're like millions of other people most of whom are unaware they even have the virus in their body. It's part of life, it seems.

[HowardH]

Also, it's usually necessary for treatment of initial herpes to continue longer than 7 days. It should continue for at least 5-7 days after significant improvement starts.

[HowardH]

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis

Pain should stop getting worse and new lesions should stop appearing within 2-3 days, but it can take 4-5 days before things start to get much better. Or you may need a higher dose. Acyclovir is an excellent drug against herpes, but some doctors tend to prescribe doses that may be too low for an initial infection. You should be on a minimum of 400 mg three times daily, and 800 mg might be even better. There are no side effects, and no reason not to take higher doses.

Or you could talk to your doctor about changing to valacyclovir, which gives higher blood levels and may be a bit more effective -- but it's a lot more expensive.

Good luck!