pregnant and lesion will not go away

[Suzanne380]

I have a history of genital herpes and have had occassional outbreaks since diagnosed about 6 yrs ago.  I am 36 weeks pregnant and have a supposed herpes lesion for over a month now.  I have been taking Valtrex regularly for 2 months and I have been taking 1 gram of Valtrex steadily for 2 weeks, and it is not going away.  Valtrex has always worked quickly when I have had outbreaks in the past.  The symptoms of this lesion (itchiness or soreness) come and go.  What could be causing this?  Could it be something other than herpes?  Could the Valtrex be harmful to my baby?  I go to the doctor again, soon, but want to be armed with all the inform. I can.  The visits tend to be pretty quick.  I don't want a C-section if it's not necessary, and I'm afraid they'll say that's just what has to be done.  I want this healed!!

[gracefromHHP]

500mg 2x/day is the recommended dose during pregnancy.  Talk to your doctor about it.

grace

[Suzanne380]

Thanks for your comments.....my doctor has me taking the 1 gm tablet/ 1x a day.  Do you think this is safe, or should I switch to 500mg/ 2x a day???  All of this did start with yeast infections, and I'm now supposedly clear with that, but I'll make sure they check again.  I don't know if they have checked for bacteria infections....  Thanks.

[gracefromHHP]

Episodic therapy during pregnancy is fine. Suppressive therapy is up to the discretion of the provider and the patient if they feel that any risk is outweighed by the benefit.  As far as we know there are no known issues with taking any of the antivirals during pregnancy.  It's become common practice for mom's with genital herpes ( regardless of type ) to take daily suppressive therapy in the pregnancy doses for the last month of pregnancy to help decrease the odds of having an active lesion at the time of delivery so that a vaginal delivery can be had. For valtrex it's 500mg 2x/day and acyclovir it's 400mg 3x/day.  We have a study that shows that there is no risk to the mother or the fetus when suppressive therapy is done for the last month of pregnancy. We don't have any studies confirming the safety for suppressive therapy earlier than that in pregnancy.  the herpes antivirals are in the same pregnancy category as tylenol as.  

grace

[waringblender]

So women can take Valtrex up through the last month?

[gracefromHHP]

Have they tested you for yeast and bacterial infections too?  Everytime I've had a lingering recurrence like that it's because there's something else going on.  Also just itchiness and soreness and no obvious lesion might just be something else like the position of the baby or something. Get it checked out.

For pregnancy for the last month you should be taking valtrex 500mg 2x/day.  

grace