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Terri
I was diagnosed with hsv2 in March of 2013 my spouse never had symptoms that I was aware of. He cheated on me multiple times and I am not sure when I contracted HSV2. I started valcyclovir 500mg once a day after my positive result. We stayed together until May of 2014 he still never had an Ob that I was aware of. After my first Ob I did not have another until March of the following year. I went 1 year without an Ob. I then had another outbreak in May of 2014 ( however I was not taking my suppressant). I got back on my medication after that and have been on it daily. I got into a new relationship in October of 2014 we had intercourse with a condom and the day after I had an Ob. It cleared up quickly and he has not had an Ob or any symptoms. We no longer have protected sex and we have sex often. He has not been tested for hsv2. So I assume he does not have it. I’ve been taking my valcyclovir 2x per day since my Ob in October fearing I’ll have another one. Well all of the sudden with no prodromal symptoms I had an Ob yesterday Jan 1 2015. and we have not been having protected sex. It seems I am having more Obs with my new partner. The Ob’s clear up very quickly within 1-2 days. My questions are could he have already had or have hsv2 and not be aware and that is why he has no symptoms? Could he get it from me and never have symptoms? Why is the antiviral not working for me even with a doubled dose? And my scary question could I have HIV and that be keeping the antiviral from working? I have not been tested for HIV since 2014. I do it yearly from my previous spouses cheating history. I have never tested positive but it worries me that the vacylcovir doesn’t seem to be working. -
I don’t hear anything that makes me concerned about HIV infection. Have you had sex with people who might have HIV since your test in 2014?
Your boyfriend could certainly be infected and not know it – either years ago or by you. I think it might be wise to get him tested because if he is positive, you no longer need to worry about this issue with him.Can you tell me about the outbreaks that you are experiencing? It is pretty unusual for a herpes outbreak to clear up in 1-2 days, actually, though I suppose with suppressive therapy on board that might be. Also, exactly how were you diagnosed? Blood test, swab test?
Sometimes frequent sex is a trigger for outbreaks, that could be the case with you.
Suppression doesn’t completely eliminate outbreaks, but it does shorten them and reduce the frequency with which you may have them.
When you say you have doubled your dose, do you mean that you now take 500 mg twice a day or 1000 mg once a day. Twice a day might be better in your situation to keep drug levels very steady.
Terri
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If you tested negative for HIV in 2014 and have had sex with him since then you’re fine!
It is fine to take two pills per day, lots of people need that dose to suppress nicely. And I think you are suppressing quite well if you only have outbreaks that last 1-2 days. How often are these happening on suppression?Terri
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My suggestion would be to get a PCR swab of one of the lesions when it is present to be absolutely certain that these are herpes and not anything else. I do think the suppression is helping you but I think with more sex now, unfortunately you are perhaps more vulnerable to getting outbreaks.
Terri
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PCR is a kind of test that is gathered in the same way that culture is but instead of growing something, like cultures do, small piece of genetic material are identified. This makes the test far more sensitive than culture.
I don’t know what it might be – skin splits from too much sex or too aggressive sex or some kind of bacterial problem. It’s just that when someone has atypical outbreak patterns (in your case very short and more frequent) I always like to be certain I’m dealing with their herpes, not something unrelated.
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Terri
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No, I don’t think I’m making myself very clear here. Sorry. I understand that you were diagnosed with HSV 2 by swab test. You don’t need a blood test to tell you that you have HSV 2, you already know that. My question is are all the things that you are experiencing as outbreaks really herpes outbreaks or could they be something else. Remember that not everything that happens in the genital area of a person who HAS herpes necessarily IS herpes.
Terri
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If you continue to have sex with him, this will always be a moving target and you will always be counting days. There is always a small chance that you could be shedding virus even without symptoms. You don’t need to wait a certain number of days between outbreaks, just don’t have sex if you have broken skin from whatever it is you are having. If he is going to have symptoms with a first outbreak, it will very likely be between 2 and 10 days. If he doesn’t have symptoms after that time, it either means that he did not get infected or that he acquired herpes without symptoms.
So has he actually been tested to determine that he is not infected? If he has not been tested, I would recommend that he get an IgG antibody test to really know his status.
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Terri
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