› Forums › Herpes Questions › Transmission of HSV-2 on Valtrex but Unprotected › Reply To: Transmission of HSV-2 on Valtrex but Unprotected
Those are the statistics, yes. And your math is correct. However, there are some things about the studies that reveal this science that I think may be relevant here. The couples that enter the studies have already been having sex for a while. Transmission is more common in the first months of a relationship than after that for a variety of reasons. The couples in the studies knew that one person had herpes and the other did not, but both knew the status of things. In your situation, only you know but that may be enough to help reduce the risk of transmission. If you did not know, then symptoms that might be herpes would be ignored, therefore increasing the likelihood of transmission.
While many people shed less virus over time, that is not true of everyone. We completely a study of people who had been infected for 10 years or more and one person shed virus on 94% of days. However, we also found in the study that there were more people who did not shed at all during the 60 days swabbing period than in studies that have looked at people infected for less time.
Terri