Much like my last question… A girl I’m attracted to is on medication for herpes… I was unaware that herpes was treatable.. At All?
Much like my last question… A girl I’m attracted to is on medication for herpes… I was unaware that herpes was treatable.. At All?
this is MOUTH herpes we’re talking about…
Anti-virals like valtrex, valacyclovir (the generic) and acyclovir do not get rid of herpes, but they can be taken daily to suppress the virus, stop outbreaks and make it less infectious, or they can be taken as ‘episodic’ treatment when you get an outbreak, at the first sign, which may stop the outbreak completely or will at least lessen its symptoms.
Taking medication for herpes reduces its infecitousness by half. For example, if your girl has hsv-2, and you had unprotected sex with her several times a week for an entire year, only taking the precaution of avoiding outbreaks, your chance of catching her herpes would be about 10%. If she took medication, it would be about 5% per year.
This is helpfup because condoms don’t provide much protection against herpes – especially for men, as most girls get outbreaks on their labia which is an area obviously not covered by a condom. I have heard of quite a few men who have caught herpes while using a condom.
Edit:
Aha… oral herpes. Same goes. Oral herpes is usually hsv-1. Since 8 out of 10 people past high school age have hsv-1 (cold sores) there is a good chance you have it too. Your girl is unlucky – 90% of people who have it have either no symptoms or symptoms so mild they don’t realise they have the virus. If you already have it, you can’t catch it off her anyway.
Again, medication halves how infectious the virus is. Oral herpes is infectious around 18% of the time (it is the most infectious form of herpes which is why so many people have it), and medicaiton halves that. This coul be important – you can get genital herpes from receiving oral sex from her even when she does not get symptoms. I got genital herpes this way from a boyfriend who got regular cold sores.
It may be your girl is just one of the unlucky ones who is plagued by cold sores, and the medication will keep her symptoms in check. People’s bodies deal with it differently – I have genital hsv-1 which normally only recurs once every two years, but I have had 9 outbreaks this year. That is when the drugs come in useful. For cold sores they may just prescribe episodic treatment, but some people are on suppressive therapy. Having visible sores on your mouth all the time isn’t much fun I suspect.