RookieBex

You are definitely not alone! I also had no outbreaks for 5.5 years and lived a very happy life. I had my first child July 2020 and 6 weeks later, boom….outbreak after outbreak. It’s been hell. I’ve had 17 give or take in the last 11 months, so I get it. I am at a loss as well. Obviously I think it’s because I gave birth, but it’s been almost a year and my body feels like it’s back to normal now. It’s just such a strange virus. Will go dormant for years and then show it’s ugly face. I think sometimes when your body gets back to back outbreaks, it gets into a cycle and stays there for a while. But just like it magically appeared for you, I am confident it will go away too. I just don’t think we should expect to live the rest of our lives like this and I’m hopeful it’ll get better for both of us 💜

Hey Lucia, I am also dealing with constant outbreaks for the last 11 months. I did give birth to my first child a year ago, so I am chalking it up to the fact that a trauma happened to my body, but I’m just so confused as to why it’s still happening now. I totally feel like myself again, no longer breastfeeding or anything so my body is back to normal. I was diagnosed almost 7 years ago and the first 5.5 years I barely had any, to the point where I forgot I even had it to be honest. I have been on 1g of valtrex daily as well, but it’s definitely not helping me the way it used to. I tried Famvir with no luck too. These outbreaks are far worse than my initial one. I too am left confused and sad. You’re not alone, but I just won’t accept that this will be our life forever. This virus is a tricky little bugger, and it just shows face when it wants to and I’m hoping for both our sakes, it’ll go back dormant. Keep your head up. Here for you!

I have also been diagnosed with HSV2 for 6 years. I had a baby 9 months ago and have had 9 painful and VERY long outbreaks since. It’s been horrendous. I have been on valtrex 1g for most of the years I’ve been diagnosed, and it seemed to have worked well before giving birth, but now it’s barely working for me. I had to increase it to 3g a day (morning, noon and night) for 5 days and it has helped a bit, but my outbreak is not yet fully gone yet and just lingering at this point. It’s like all of a sudden I’ve become resistant. So yes, I am experiencing the same problem. How long do your OB’s last? Do you have any time in between each one? My recommendations is talk to your doctor about taking 1g x 3 a day for 3-5 days. Also, I was told because I went from not getting barely any outbreaks before to getting so many back to back to get it swabbed to make sure nothing else is going on down there (like BV or staph or something like that). If it is confirmed HSV2, you can get a test to see if you have any resistance to acyclovir (main ingredient in valtrex). However, I would up your valtrex for sure (doctor approved), and see how it goes from there. Hope this helps a little.

How are you now? I just read this thread. I know it’s been a few years since you got your first ob. Hope it’s settled down and all is well with you and your partner 💜

How are you now?

Just following up to see if you’ve been ok the last few months when having sex? Has it not come back?

Trust me. I am 100% right there with you. It is totally affecting me emotionally and physically, and I have gotten ZERO answers. I’ve talked to several different types of specialty doctors about it too and they haven’t given me any idea why this could be happening and when it may ever stop. All I can say is, I can relate to you and you’re not alone. Are you able to go off the new meds you’re taking to see if that may be the source of these back to back outbreaks?

Hi all! I joined this helpful forum 6 years ago when I was first diagnosed to help me cope emotionally. I am/was one of the people that didn’t show physical symptoms often (if ever), but it obviously took a toll on me mentally and emotionally. Once I accepted this was a part of my life, I moved on. I met someone a few years later that was negative and he was accepting of all of me and we got married and got pregnant. My pregnancy was easy and didn’t have any issues. (Also good to note I have been on valtrex daily since I was first diagnosed). We had our beautiful little boy last July. All was well until September came around. I got a massive outbreak. Since then, I’ve had back to back outbreaks with barely any break in between. I think I’ve had 8 within a 6-7 month span (from September until now). It’s been insane, and of course physically painful and bringing back all the initial emotions I had when I was first diagnosed. My husband is super understanding and wonderful, but I’m definitely feeling distressed about it and worried it’s never going to end. I understand if it happened a few times right after I gave birth, but I’m now 8 months postpartum and feel like I’m back to myself again. I’m no longer breastfeeding (I thought that may have had something to do with it, so I stopped 3 months ago), I’m sleeping long stretches every night now so no longer fatigued from a new born, but I’m still getting them consistently. I think I am just hoping to get some feedback or if anyone has experienced something similar and how long it took for your body to go back to normal again? I’m sure hormones are playing a role, but it’s weird that I had no outbreaks during pregnancy, and just postpartum. I’ve talked to doctors about it and they haven’t been helpful to say the least. Thanks for your input!

How are you doing now JackDaniels & everyone else that responded? Has the outbreaks subsided? I’m currently going through a crazy amount of back to back outbreaks since I gave birth to my first child. I have had HSV-2 for 6 years with barely any outbreaks at all. But since I’ve given birth 8 months ago, I’ve had 7 outbreaks back to back. I’m freaking out.

Yes, everyone handles it differently. Some people contact their giver and some don't. In my situation, I think I needed closure and wanted him to know. And for the record, I don't think he knew he had it, h aside, he has a VERY strange way of communicating with people that I am seeing now. He has gone radio silent more than just when I told him about what happened to me. He actually ended up reaching out to try to get me back, which just ended up being a total disaster (nothing to do with h - he is just really good at being a complete asshole). You can imagine how awful and foolish I felt, but honestly I don't care at this point because I know he is going to have a long life of loneliness for the way he treats people.I have never met someone who is so heartless and I know how deserving I am of love and he doesn't even come close to making the cut. Anyway, thanks for all your comments, I haven't been on here for a while because I have been so busy with work, but I will say, I am much better and have stopped thinking about h so much. I feel like I am definitely living a normal life. I'm laughing, joking and feeling happiness and I hope everyone else is too :)

This was absolutly awesome to read

Woooohoooo RJ!!

Thank you for this. It touched my heart. I'm feeling a bit better about everything but still have my moments and days. You are extremely positive and uplifting. Before I became a part of this site, I was reading some posts and came across one of yours and it made me cry because it was so touching. It's really helpful knowing people are in this together. Thanks again

h friends, I am coming up on my month anniversary of finding out I have herpes. I met a guy and we had only been dating for three weeks....I liked him A LOT. We spent many days in a row together each of those weeks and I had sex with him pretty quickly because I felt that "connection" (likely story). Side note....I am the type of person that has felt invincible in the past when having sexual partners and never in a million years thought I would ever get h or anything else for that matter. Its almost the same thing as when you go out for drinks and then drive, you never think you are going to get pulled over (Busted). Anyway, we obviously didn't use a condom and even had a conversation about how we must really trust each other not to use one. But here is the kicker and the most shameful part about it. I even SAW something on his penis, but with how ignorant I was, I thought it was just a pimple or something of that sort so I disregarded it. Three glorious weeks into knowing this person, he tells me that he needs some time to "think" about if he wants a serious relationship right now (he had been through a rough breakup a few months ago). I give him the space he needs and I'm pretty sad about it but brush it off thinking this is the risk you take when putting yourself out there in the dating world. 2 days later, I start feeling like I'm coming down with something while at work and then that night I see some strange bumps down there. I was so confused as to what was happening, but at the same time I think deep down I did know. I force myself into the gyno office the following day and she tells me from what she can see with the bare eye, its a classic case of a mild ob of herpes. I think I had my first panic attack. I didn't get out of bed for four days following that appointment. Then monday morning I get the confirmation call, Positive for h. I asked her to diagnose what type it was and she said it was too new of a virus in my body to type just yet so immediately I knew it was him that gave it to me. I text him a long paragraph explaining what happened. No answer. I text him later on in the day. nothing. I text him the next day after a sleepless night, still nothing. I wait a few more days and the 4th text message to him was not a pleasant one. Nada. I had never felt so low and alone in my life. I KNEW he was the one that gave it to me and I was beginning to feel like he knew all along and just never disclosed it. I had a plethora of emotions running through me. Anger, shame, hatred of him, loneliness and lack of self worth. The worst thing about it was that I was secretly hoping he would want to work it out with me now because of the circumstances. Like this needed to happen in order for me to win him back over. Isn't that just pathetic? I hated myself for feeling like that. The next night (after the nasty text I sent him) he texted me and asked me if I would be open to talk to him. He said that he had been doing a lot of the thinking he needed to do and thanked me for giving him the time he asked for and that he had a small ob and was tested positive for h as well and that he needed to see me right away. I felt like it was my chance to redeem him and told him I wanted to see him too but went home to my parents house (about four hours away from where I currently live) and that I couldn't see him until the next week. He asked if we could at least talk on the phone the next day and I agreed. The next day came and nothing. I reached out to him and asked when we were going to talk and he never wrote me back. I could't believe that he could be so insensitive, so selfish and so uncompassionate of the situation at hand. It almost wasn't humanly to me. When I returned back to where I live, I reached out one more time and told him that he is was an inhumane person and the least he could do is acknowledge the fact I am emotionally suffering from all of this. He wrote back and told me he wanted to see me in person to talk. We met that very night and he told me how sorry he was and how he didn't know he had it until we stopped talking. He also proceeded to tell me that he shuts off to the world when something life altering like this happens to him and yada yada. Long story short, he told me that he thought he wanted to be with me when he first reached out but then realized (in a matter of 24 hours I guess??) that he still wasn't ready, regardless of the circumstances. God, What a whirlwind. I felt like I lost everything. I lost a piece of myself and I lost the guy that gave this to me. A complete lose lose. Its been about a week and a half since that conversation and I feel like I've gone through an emotional roller coaster but have come out on top since. In a weird way, I feel like this needed to happen to me in order for me to learn how to be independent (I have always been a cereal dater and have always been afraid to be on my own without a companion). Also I think its going to teach me not to be so naive when picking sexual partners and to pay more attention to the emotional connection rather than jumping into a physical one first. Its going to teach me a sense of self worth and self loving and make me strong in case theres any type of rejection in the future (and I don't mean just the rejection after the disclosure talk, I mean any type of deal-breaker there is to someone out there). I'm trying to be positive about this. I'm trying not to let the thought of having it ruin my day to day life. Some days I burst out crying and other days Im laughing and almost forget about it completely. I am terrified of the disclosure conversation but I don't expect myself to be okay with it right now. I'm still learning about how to accept it in my life. The truth is guys, ANYONE can get this because 99.9% of the population has practiced unsafe sex at least once before and thats all it takes. Of course the negative stigma is far greater than it should be, but soon the whole country will have it (especially because the medical community doesn't test you for it unless you specifically ask for it which is crazy to me because thats just allowing it to spread like wild fire and that is irresponsible in itself in my opinion). Lastly, I am SO thankful to have a forum like this as support. It is so helpful to read stories and see other people going through this. Adrial is such a phenomenal soul inside and out and I hope to exude the depth and compassion that he portrays everyday. I am not saying that this is something I wanted, but what I do know is that this may have opened up a door of opportunity for me to grow, be humble and be the best human being I can be in this world. Thanks for reading my story :)