I just don't get it.

I don't understand. It's not fair and I'm beginning to hate my life. I was diagnosed 3 years ago. Had one OB then was OB free for over 2 years. Now, since January I've had 5 or 6 separate OBs. How? My diet is good, I exercise! I do everything I'm supposed to and it doesn't matter! It's still ruining my life. Why would it go from being a minor inconvinience to life altering constant discomfort?!

It's hard to say what triggers the virus to become active. Have you been more stressed lately? Maybe going on suppressive antivrials, even if not permanently but for a period of time, would help to reduce or stop the frequent outbreaks

I was thinking about going on suppressive therapy for that reason. But I don't know. I honestly don't FEEL like anything specific has been stressing me out more than usual. How does suppressive therapy affect the bodies natural ways of fighting the virus? Will my body become dependent on the antivirals so I am forced to take them the rest of my dull life?

Suppressive therapy doesn't interfere with your body's ability to fight the virus at all. The antivirals just reduce the replication of the virus, therein helping to reduce the number of outbreaks and reduce shedding. Your body is still busy producing antibodies to help fight off the virus on its own. I have read that *sometimes* when one comes off of antivirals they can experience an outbreak, but that it does not mean that you will *continue* with outbreaks. One of the moderators on here, @WCSDancer2010, has mentioned in previous posts that it is best to wean down off of the antivirals instead of stopping "cold turkey" to try to prevent an outbreak while coming off of them. So you would cut down the dose gradually prior to fulling stopping the medication. If I ever come off of them this is what I plan to do.

Antivirals have been proven to be very safe to take long term, so if safety is a concern I wouldn't worry about that. They also greatly reduce shedding of the virus and thus keep the risk of transmission lower with any partners you may have that are H-

As for triggers, do the outbreak correlate at all to your menstrual cycle? That was one of my thoughts when you said since January you've had 5-6, that's almost one per month.

Some women find that this happens to them and regulating hormones can be of help

@Raven Stress is a trigger for many, as well as hormonal fluctuations. Diet is one as well. For myself, I can eat chocolate and drink alcohol without the incidence of an outbreak. These are things that are listed as possible triggers. I've not yet seen anyone claim that cucumbers are a trigger for outbreaks, but they sure are for me! So a healthy food, that I love, caused me to have 3 pretty bad outbreaks within a 3-4 week period. After having very few outbreaks over several years, I was really down about getting these outbreaks. (One occurred, healed up, another occurred and while I was still dealing with that one, a third came about.) I cut cucumbers from my diet, and haven't had another since. Think long and hard about whether or not you've added anything new to your diet. Even the healthy stuff. ;)