herpes breakouts & aciclovir

[hopefulforacure]

to be brief: i'm 37 male and I have herpes 1 however it is genital herpes 1. herpes none the less. normally I never get breakouts. i got my first in 2001 & I didn't have another until 2007. I was amazed myself. since fall 2008 something has been changing. I can get them sometimes 1x a month. They can last almost 10 days from clear skin to clear skin, sometimes 20 days. nothing has changed in my diet, lifestyle, etc. I take no medication of any kind - stress seems to be the only trigger

my father was very clear as a child, "don't use medicine unless you absolutely have to. your imune system will get weaker the more medicine you use" and it has worked all these years. the only thing I use, or have been using these past 10 months has been aciclovir cream whenever I feel my skin getting a bit rough. It seems to stop the outbreak fast.

can anyone give a little more details of their experiences?
is this normal? these length of breakouts?
is there anything in particular I can do to make it receed faster?

thanks!

[gracefromHHP]

Acyclovir cream is useless for genital herpes recurrences. It only clears up ob's 1/2 a day sooner than placebo.

At this point you need to go and be seen and make sure this is all hsv1 going on. If you've had a new partner since you contracted it you might've contracted hsv2. Also just because you have herpes, doesn't mean that everything that goes on in your genital area is due to herpes so you need proper evaluation to see just what is causing your sudden increase in symptoms.

Not getting recurrences very often is typical for hsv1 genitally. When you do start getting recurrences frequently like this, it's time to suspect other causes.

grace

[hopefulforacure]

Daisy thanks so much. 2 things:

Acyclovir cream is expensive. Here in Paris it is only 5 euros for a little tube. Dare I ask how much it is there. As for the tablets, I am unfamiliar with them. Can you explain. do you mean whenever you have a little red patch or sore skin you just take 2 Acyclovir tablets for a few days and then the symptoms lessen? THat is it? Do you need a prescription for the tablets?

new to this whole thing. so strange though to see your body change as you get older and have to take tablets for something that never even came up in the past.

any extra help would be very nice.
thanks in advance

[daisy315]

Whilst I agree with your Dad taking lots of medications not being a good idea there are some conditions that require them and HSV can in some cases be one of them particularly when a person is having recurrent outbreaks,if you have been under stress lately then that is most likely the reason for them,I would advise rather than using Acyclovir cream to take Acyclovir Tablets as a Suppressive Therapy for a bit to lessen your outbreaks it involves taking 2 tablets a day for as long as you feel it neccesary,Acyclovir is a pretty safe drug and used widely for HSV ..... I personally have taken it for 2 years and have had no side effects from it whatsoever.
There is no real benefit from the Cream and it can be very expensive .......

Daisy