herpes and kidney transplant

[queen888]

I have genital HSV 2 diagnosed by PCR of swab and by IgG type specific blood work. I am entering a new relationship and he is 10yrs out from a kidney transplant and takes immunosuppresents.I have been on Valtrex 500mg daily since I was diagnosed in 2013.
What are the risks for transmission from me to him assuming sex with a condom and not when I have an outbreak. I have actual lab results if that would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

[Terri Warren]

My first question to you would be has your partner been tested to determine if he has herpes or not. If he has actually not been infected with herpes and you were taking daily therapy the risk of him acquiring HSV-2 from you is about 2% in a year. This applies if you’re having sex about twice a week and no condoms are used. If condoms are used the risk reduces even further. However the first important thing to do is to get him tested to determine that he actually is not positive. Though he is immunosuppressed I’m not clear that he has a much greater risk of acquiring herpes from you then if he was not. Have you told him yet that you have herpes? If you have how did you do with that information.

Please let me know if you have further questions

Terri

[queen888]

No he has not been tested but will be.
I told him that I was + HSV 2 and he was concerned, was going to call his nephrologist. Im concerned because other health care providers are not knowledgeable about HSV just scared of it. I wanted to have unbiased advice from you.
Why do you say that his immune suppression would not increase his risk?

[Terri Warren]

I’m not clear that it increases his risk. I am not aware of any research on this topic. We know that people who are immuocompromised themselves shed more virus but I would need to more carefully evaluate the literature to see if a person who is immunocompromised would actually be more susceptible to infection themselves. I just not sure exactly how that would work but I’ll check more into it.

terri

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