Certainly daily suppressive therapy would also help to negate the risk too don't you think?
I don't recall them breaking down any of the suppressive therapy studies into women taking the bc pill but since the risk is small of increased shedding and we know suppressive therapy is very effective in reducing shedding, shouldn't be an issue correct?
Perhaps we've just come up with a research study for someone? :)
grace
Thanks, Grace. I stand corrected. I was unaware of that study.
TMTFP, I'm not sure this necessarily is a serious consideration in estimating your risk of transmission to your partner, in view of your longstanding infection, taking Valtrex, etc. The risk is definitely on the low side.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15844064 for reference as to what I based my reply in the herpes forum on.
Welcome to the forum, and congratulations to you for a level-headed understanding about you herpes and your responsibility in protecting your partner. And to him for his apparent understa nding of the situation.
To my knowledge, hormonal contraception haas little or no effect on shedding. That might have been the case years ago, when oral contraceptives delivered much higher doses of hormone than they do now. I cannot imagine that the current low dose pills have any measurable effect. I'll check the latest scientific literature and post a follow-up comment if I find conflicting information. But for now I see no worries.
Regardless of this, your guesstimate of a 2% annual risk rate probably is too high. This many years after your initial infection, and with only rare outbreaks, it's a good bet you shed virus infrequently. There are no good data on is, but HSV-2 transmission seems to be quite uncommon in presence of such longstanding infection.
I hope this helps. Best wishes for a happy and healthy relationship. HHH, MD