What’s the difference in dosage for outbreak treatment vs daily suppressive therapy? Should we be on daily suppressive therapy if we become sexually active with a partner that doesn’t have it?
I am on suppression therapy 500mg a day and if I feel an outbreak coming it's 1000mg a day for like 3-5 days. I am in a relationship so I chose suppression therapy, I have only had one outbreak since I was diagnosed a year ago and it was hardly anything. Some people don't like doing that but for me it's a piece of mind thing
My doc gave me 500mg to take 3x daily for 5 days to treat an outbreak. She never said anything about suppression therapy, I learned about it in these forums. I was diagnosed in Sep when I had my first outbreak and am now on my 4th. Only the first was bad, the others have just been some combination of itching and nerve pain. I’m not seeing anyone now as I broke it off with the scum bag that gave it to me, but I’m hopeful I’ll eventually meet someone worth having sex with again.
According to the CDC:
EPISODIC
Acyclovir 400 mg x 3 daily (or 800 mg x 2 daily) for 5 days, OR 800 mg x 3 daily for 2 days
Valacyclovir 500 mg x 2 daily for 3 days, OR 1000 mg x 1 daily for 5 days
SUPPRESSIVE
Acyclovir 400 mg x 2 daily
Valacyclovir 500 mg x 1 daily for those with less frequent recurrences, OR 1000 mg x 1 daily for those with very frequent recurrences (e.g., 10 or more outbreaks per year) or who still have recurrences on the lower dosage
Yes, having a negative partner who wants to reduce the risk as much as possible also warrants suppressive therapy.
Yeah I had heard about it because I had a friend that got it when we were really young so luckily I was able to ask her all about it since she's been dealing with it for the better part of 16 years! I hopped in suppression therapy asap. For my piece of mind and whoever I'm with as well. I hope that once you do get with someone the disclosure goes well I'm honestly terrified if I ever have to disclose to someone.
I’ve already figured out a strategy for disclosure. They have to be willing to take an STD test that includes both HSV 1&2 before we have sex. If they’re not willing, I’ll cut them loose then. If they are, I’ll share my results when they share theirs. I figure if they have it, then we
Won’t have much of an issue, if they don’t, they’ll still have all the info to decide what they want to do. If they don’t want to move forward, they’ll still know for sure they’re clean and if they ever discover they have it, they’ll know for sure who didn’t give it to them, something I wish I had known when I first got diagnosed. But, it’s still a terrifying prospect. Not sure when I’ll be able to trust a guy enough to get that close to anyone again. In the meantime, I’m on my 4th outbreak since my diagnosis in Sep so I think suppressive therapy is the way to go.
That's a great idea with the results thing but it really does boil down to trust, I'm afraid I'll tell someone finally and then they leave and tell everyone they know. S**t, this is terrifying