Cold sore

[rugby615]

I am an 18 year old male and I cant remeber the first cold sore i had so it was probaly when i was very young, i do remeber having one when i was around 11 years old and not thinking anything of it and not having one for another 5 years, after that it was over another year until my next one, and Question #1: i am wondering, it says that cold sores are supposed to become less frequent with age, so why are mine increasing, should i take lysine supplements?  

Question #2 : I have had a bunch of girlfriends and i never tell them i get cold sores and didnt feel badly about this, but now that i have done some reasearch it seems i am putting them at risk for getting the virus, what is the chance of me infecting them if i kiss them with no symptoms?

[rugby615]

thankyou very much!
I havent really talked to a doctor about it at all,  
but i would do whatever it takes to avoid getting one,  
i will get the antivirals,  is the only reason you dont reccomend lysine because of the hassle? or is there side effects you know of?

[gracefromHHP]

Cold sores are incredibly common. In your age group about 1 out of every 3 teens has hsv1 orally.  Many things can influence cold sores and how often they happen. Considering that the average is 2 a year and you aren't even having them yearly - you certainly don't have an out of control oral herpes infection going on by no means!  Burning the candle at both ends in college ( or even the last year of high school ) can also contribute to getting more viral illnesses in general ( cold and flu ) which can increase the number of obvious cold sores you get. Also being out in the sun can also trigger them.  Have you talked to your doctor about keeping herpes antivirals on hand to start at the first sign of a cold sore about to start so that you can shorten the duration of it?

Lysine doesn't help speed the healing of cold sores.  It's also a pain to take 3x/day. We don't recommend it here.  

Just avoiding kissing someone and performing oral sex on them whenever you have obvious cold sores or are otherwise feeling ill ( they don't call them cold sores/fever blisters for nothing ) does really go a long way.  http://www.ashastd.org/herpes/herpes_learn_oralherpes.cfm  has more info on oral herpes too for more reading.  

grace