Does suppression blunt your natural immunity

[Next step]

My doc put me on suppression after my first OB due to my anxiety. 

This concernd me a bit because I will not know the natural course of what is happening . Will this impact the burn out effect that happens naturally? I'm scared to come off and scared to not ;(

[ihatethis]

Great question! I'm interested to know as well.

[mr_hopp]

Hey @Next step & @ihatethis,

No, medication won't affect your body creating antibodies to naturally suppress the virus over time. 

I've never been a fan of taking the medication just because you have herpes. When I was single and not having sex with anyone, I didn't need to take the medication because I would only have an outbreak every 6 months or so, so it wasn't worth it for me to take daily meds to possibly avoid an outbreak here or there. But each person is different. And especially in the first 6 months to a year, being on meds will help you suppress the virus while your antibodies are building up your natural suppression capabilities. 

By the way, there are 2 reasons to be on herpes medication. Here's an article I wrote on that:
https://herpeslife.com/herpes-medication/

Hope this helps!

[Hopeforall]

@mr_hopp question regarding medication. I heard taking the medication long term can be pretty hard on your liver and kidneys. I mean any medications you take always have their risk. But I stopped taking the medication because I don’t want to try to fix one thing and down the road mess with something else. What’s your take on that? Also I seem to feel very depressed while on valacyclovir. Is it that specific medication or are they alike?

[mr_hopp]

Hey @Hopeforall! No medication has 0 effect on the liver, but from what I've always heard, herpes meds have been shown to be very well tolerated and easy on the liver over time. Did you have depressive tendencies before you started taking the medication, too or no? All the parallels I've seen between medication and depression is less the medication itself and more the unprocessed grief and shame that a herpes diagnosis tends to bring with it. Do you feel less depressed now that you're off the meds? Maybe try acyclovir instead as a trial run? (That's what I take: 2 pills per day of 400mg to keep my wife safe from getting it.) But again, if you aren't having sex and your outbreaks aren't that bad/often, then you can always pause medication and hop back on it later if you get into a relationship with someone who doesn't have herpes or your outbreaks come back strong (which, over time, they'll get less and less). 

Hope this helps!