abarrow328

I don't believe so. I'm under the impression that the only way to really be diagnosed is if you have an outbreak, with HSV2 anyways. My doctor told me anyone could take the blood test and it will be positive for either strain but there's no way to tell which strain it is unless you have an active outbreak and have it swabbed. How true is this? I don't believe he ever had an outbreak because we were pretty open and he had showed me once when he had a bump he was worried about. So I believe if he had an outbreak he would have showed/told me.

Thank you for your support!

Thank you for the clarification. I'm surprised my doctor didn't recommend the suppressive therapy anyhow since she knew I was in a relationship. Once I got home, the more I thought about it and researched it I thought I should have probably done the suppressive therapy. @forgivenessandpeace

I think I have read this on many post but I just want to get a clear answer and make sure I am understanding correctly. From my understanding you can get HSV2 from someone who gives you oral sex and has HSV1? Also I have had three outbreaks within the past two months. Each time I took Valacyclovir for about a week to shorten the outbreak. My doctor told me that it is okay to take the medications just when I have an outbreak or if I have more than five or six a year I should consider suppressive therapy. She also knew that I was in a committed relationship at the time; I now am not. Would it be more cautious of me to be on suppressive therapy when in a relationship? I would love more information on this. Thanks in advance.

I'll start by saying I am enjoying this site and all the discussion posts. It has made me feel a little better to realize people live normal lives with this diagnosis. I am twenty-three years old. And my story is this... I just recently am out of a six month relationship. At the beginning of my relationship I was STD tested, as I am before being sexual active in any relationship. My results all came back negative and so I thought I was good to go. About a six weeks ago I had an outbreak, a painful little blister in the genital area. Of course as many people when they're sick and such I rationalized it enough to be something else and didn't go to the doctor, just let it heal on its own. It was VERY painful. Two weeks later, BAM another outbreak in the genital area but on the opposite side. At this point I was worried, thought my boyfriend had cheated on me. I was not willing to deal with the pain this time around and knew two outbreaks like this in two weeks, I needed to go to the doctor. I scheduled an appointment immediately. I am a nursing student so I researched online and was almost positive it was herpes but had prayed it wasn't and that this was not happening to me. I went to the doctor and she was almost positive it was herpes from my description and observation. She tested it and a week later, yup I have HSV 2. I was confident she knew it was HSV 2 by just looking at it. The most frustrating part to me was the fact that she told me they don't test for it on normal STD test and the really the only way to be 100% sure is to do a swab culture when a patient has an outbreak. I also asked if there was any way to know how long I had had the virus; she said no. This was also extremely frustrating because now I have HSV 2 and I have no idea how long I've had it. Did I get it from a previous boyfriend and just have no outbreaks until now or did my boyfriend have it and not know and pass it to me or did he cheat on me? There's no answer and I guess I will never know. I contemplated telling my boyfriend but I didn't for the simple fact that I thought he would leave me. So selfish I know. I was just extra careful for the last month we were together. We have since broken up for another reasons and I still cannot bring myself to tell him. I KNOW he will tell others and we have a lot of mutual friends; we live in a very small town. Now that I am single again, I couldn't imagine even dating or getting into another relationship. I would be so ashamed and embarrassed to disclose this information to other people. Not to mention, getting interested in someone and being hurt over and over again through the rejection because I have HSV 2. I just keep thinking ok I can take suppressive drug therapy and use condoms but what if I want to have more children, then I'm going to have to have unprotected sex. Who is going to want to risk contracting HSV 2? Who is going to want to risk their unborn child getting HSV 2 from birth? Everywhere I go herpes, herpes, herpes. I hear it on tv now, in conversation, in class, at the hospital where I work. Maybe I heard it a lot before just never took notice, but now it is a constant reminder every single day. Thanks for your support in advance.