Conceiving

[ivoryrain]

I'm so full of questions as time goes on that I can't possibly hold them all until I have my annual on the 7th lol. So my boyfriend hasn't been tested yet (I found out on Friday, so he had to wait for the weekend to pass). If he is negative or if I end up with a negative partner in the future, how can I naturally conceive without risk? Will he just have to accept that there will be some if we choose to naturally conceive? I would obviously be on suppressive therapy and cautious of potential outbreaks. I don't plan on having children for another 6-8 years, so by then I'm sure my body will have a pretty decent line of defense.

[WCSDancer2010]

Well as you said, by that time your body will have had plenty of time to get the thing under control. So that combined with the anti-virals should put the guys risk factor at less than 2% without condoms. Remember that condoms are only useful IF they FULLY cover the area where you get OB's too .. which is why they are only about 50% effective (based on a large population of participants ... not on individual risk-stats).

 

I'll be totally honest with you. Most men will eventually want to ditch the condom. The older they get, the harder it gets to use a condom so they will likely be gone long before you get to that point...LOL

 

And *maybe* by that time we will have some other way to suppress the virus even better. One thing I have heard recently is having the H- person take Valtrex as a prophylactic to help them fight the virus off if they are exposed to it ... and another is the possibility that the Shingle Vaccine may *help* to reduce shedding in a H+ person. These are things we currently have available so if some researcher did studies on that maybe we will have other ways to protect our partners by then. It's a loong way in the future so for now, try not to worry about it too much. ;)