hsv1 questions

I am having my second ob a week after finishing the 10 day Valtrex from my first. the doctor said with it being this close I should start on the daily suppressants. But, since the recurrence rate for genital hsv1 is usually so low, should I wait and see if I have a third before I start it? And is the daily suppressant for reducing ob occurrences only or does it also reduce transmission chances as well? If it does decrease the rate, would it have decreased it further had I not had recurring obs?

Whether you start an antiviral now or wait until another outbreak is up to you....just a personal preference as to whether you'd prefer to just treat outbreaks or try to prevent them. There's really no way to know how often you might have outbreaks or how bad they will be.

The daily antiviral both reduces the number of outbreaks (for most people) and it also reduces transmission rates, but doesn't eliminate the risk of transmission entirely.

No, the antiviral would not reduce transmission rates further if you had not had recurring outbreaks. No one knows how often each of us shed asymptomatically as individuals. The stats you see out there for the frequency of asymptomatic shedding are averages from groups of people. But we do know that you're much, much more likely to transmit the virus during an active outbreak. Research also tells us that we're more likely to shed the virus asymptomatically more often during the first several months/first year or so of acquiring the virus.

@qwerty123

I'm so new to this! How do you know recurrent outbreaks for genital HSV-1 is low? I've just been diagnosed and battling first outbreak. Worried about the future.

Also, I can still pass this to a partner genitally right? I'm not sure if it has to be passed orally which might be how I got it . So confused