1. I am located in Australia and am having some trouble locating places to do the Western Blot – are you able to tell me how to do this test?
No, we’ve tried from Australia and the transit time is too long – at least so far.
2. If I have been infected with gHSV1 for 10 years I understand I am a very low risk to future partners. However I have seen you mention on other posts that though expensive it is possible to take daily swabs to measure shedding and submit to a lab. Is this correct, can you explain how I could do this?
I don’t know how you would do that from Australia, but I also think it would be a waste of your money – you might be shedding 2-4 days out of the year, so you would have to swab an incredibly long time anyway to get a clearer answer.
3. With shedding rates – if an outbreak occurs would it take 2 years to get back down to the 4 days per year shedding rate? Or shedding isn’t affected that drastically by an outbreak?
No, it would be from the date of infection
4. Would you recommend antivirals to someone like me who is asymptomatic and have likely had it for a decade?
No, not unless they had a partner that was truly terrified of getting HSV 1.But I do let patients make this call, not me.
Terri
5. Where does shedding actually occur for women?