purpleherple

Do you think going to a family planning center would be better or they would understand where I'm coming from and suggest daily therapy? It seems like they deal with sti's more directly and could be more knowledgeable.

I was just diagnosed with HSV2 just over two months ago and I am still struggling with this and trying to make the best of it. I've read the Good News About the Bad News and I have been reading numerous articles and forum posts on the subject. I feel that I have started to get a grasp on the situation and what I may be in store for. I'm not completely over feeling the negative aspects of this but I don't feel like I'm in a pit of despair anymore and want to begin to feel better. I have been single for almost a year and I feel prepared to possibly give dating a shot again. In preparation for this and knowing often the asymptomatic shedding occurs, I made an appointment with my doctor to get a prescription for an anti-viral. I was a bit surprised to have my doctor tell me that he was basically just going to prescribe the medication for outbreak management. I have only had two outbreaks in the last three years (from what I know now I was misdiagnosed years ago when I had an initial outbreak and by a dermatologist of all people!) and he used having 6 outbreaks a year as a baseline of whether or not I would need daily suppressive therapy. I pressed him on this further with my concern of transmission to another person as my outbreaks are few and far between and are very mild (at least I can be thankful for that). I was told that as long as I'm using condoms and abstaining when I have outbreaks that I wont transmit it. I didn't feel like arguing with him and I sort of don't feel like I should argue with an experienced medical professional, but I thought this was how the medical community used to handle this (maybe around the 80's and 90's) until they better understood how often shedding occurred. From just about everything I've read that just doesn't seem true and condoms only protect the area they cover leaving everything else vulnerable to transmission. I know even with condoms and medication it is still possible, but the risk is greatly reduced. Does the advice I was given seem out of touch? The only other conclusion I can try to grasp is that because I have such infrequent outbreaks I don't shed as much or there is less of a risk? I have yet to read anything that would back that up. If it does seem off I don't feel like I can tell my doctor to prescribe me more for daily suppressant or that I disagree with his medical advice. Do I go to different doctor and try to explain this or a family planning center? It's such a pain to establish with another doctor and I feel like a dick telling him I think he's not giving me the best info. I was really hoping to feel less burdened by this disease today, but this took the wind out of my sails. I just don't feel that I would be giving a potential future partner the best scenario to prevent infection and makes me feel less confident in putting myself back out there.