she really should be tested periodically to know her status. why worry about transmission if she's already infected? If she's negative, staying on the proper doses for suppressive therapy is in her best interest. When you can take active measures to prevent infection of a child bearing age female, it's really a good idea to do so.
I've been on acyclovir suppressively more than I have for over 20 years nows :)
Thanks Grace. Yes I have a regular partner and I don't think she has hsv2. We always use a condom and she's never had any outbreaks and we've been together for 5 years. I suppose if there are years of usage with no side effects then I'll stay on the 500mg. Thanks for the advice.
do you have a regular partner? if so, do they have hsv2 too?
really no reason to be concerned about the actual dose of medication either. we have info on the safety of acyclovir for almost 30 years now and valtrex for 20 years. No long term side effects from being on them. If you are going to bother to take antivirals, take the right dose so that it's actually working. You'd kick yourself later if you weren't controlling shedding properly with a hsv2 negative partner and transmitted the virus :(
I know this has been covered before, but I don't like taking any medication daily (obviously in this case it's not really an option) so I'd like to try at least cutting back. I don't want to be on 500mg daily for the rest of my life (i'm only 26) so I was hoping that if I can cut back to 250mg daily then if that works out then one day I may be able to go onto just episodic treatment if the outbreaks are few and far between. I'd prefer to cut back to the 250mg and see what happens rather than have a 'test period' where I don't take any medication and see how many outbreaks I get.
the studies they initially did showed that it took 500mg daily for most folks, who had 9 or less recurrences a year, to get a significant reduction in recurrences and shedding. we don't recommend any dose less than that for suppressive therapy.
any particular reason why you want to make your medication last longer?
grace