Question:
I've been infected with hsv for 15 years, and never taken meds. My recurrences are fairly mild and infrequent now. Now that my bf is likely infected as well, I'm worried more than ever about the impact hsv will have on our sex life. Basically, I'm thinking we will be having outbreaks at different times and him probably more frequently than I...and will we ever have a chance to have normal sex again?

I'm trying to figure out if he will benefit from meds? Would we both? I'm also worried about rebound recurrences if meds are stopped.

I'd be very interested in hearing other people's experiences with meds or other treatments. I know this is not going to go away, but I want it to fade somewhere into the background, so I can stop thinking about it every second.

Answer:
I've probably had ghsv for more than 10 years. I was actually diagnosed this past January when I had my second ob ever.

In all the years I didn't know I had this virus I learned that if I ate certain foods I'd get weird itching. Of course I thought this was caused by allergies.

I learned to avoid my own trigger items which included: nuts (all of them including pine nuts) corn, nut oils (especially peanut oil), crispy fried foods (I don't understand this unless it is oils again), legumes such as beans and lentils. I tried going off of coffee for a month but this didn't make a difference. Recently I found that oatmeal cookies seemed to be the culprit (or it was the ground flax seed I added to the batter?)

I tried antiviral medications starting in January and just quit them. I found that as time passed they seemed to not be effective. I wouldn't get ob's but I would experience symptoms of burning and itching. It's been 3 weeks since I quit the meds and my symptoms are actually better than with the meds. I still have that itch but it might be neuralgia.