Continuous genital herpes outbreaks dispite surpressive therapy

I’ve enjoyed 10 years of zero outbreaks only for it to return this last year always on day 3 of my period.  I’ve had an outbreak 7 months out of 12. 

The only thing that has changed is that I have come off the pill although I’m reluctant to start taking it again. 

I try to manage it without tablets. I have taken medication and it does work for me but I wanted to try fight this back into hibernation naturally although after 12 months realising this may not be possible. 

I keep a OB diary and have noted that my triggers have been. 

Period - most OB’s bar 2 

Stress - what started it all off 

Alcohol - caused 3 OB’s - heavy drinking

sex - 1 OB 

Coffee - possibly, I drink a lot of coffee everyday. 

tampons - I now use a cup which btw is amazing! 

I take a lot of supplements: 

Vit C 

Probiotics 

Zinc 

Iron 

Multivitamin 

B vitamins 

Omega 3

Calcium 

I have tried Lysine in the past but it didn’t appear to make a huge difference. 

The iron I believe has helped with my period outbreaks. 

I’ve recently asked my doctor for some blood tests to check that there is no underlying issues. I will do these this week. 

I think I will be ready to start suppression medication in the hope that it will put the virus back into hibernation. (Possibly wishful thinking) 

Ultimately I think for me my OB’s are triggered to mainly hormones and stress but would be good to rule out any possible underlying issues with the bloods. This will put my mind at rest and possibly reduce stress. 

I feel quite lucky reading some of the stories that my OB’s don’t appear to be as frequent or as bad. I have managed to stop outbreaks naturally but it’s definitely a lot of effort. 

To those suffering I recommend you keep track of what happened before a breakout. It can help identify triggers. 

Also try to pay attention to your  Prodrome symptoms. Mine is an odd numbness/tingling in my upper leg sometimes buttocks but it will always tell me that an OB is on the way allowing me to take medication if I have it available or chose to take it. 

Good luck all. 

I mentioned before that I was going for blood tests before I went for suppression meds. 

My white blood count came back as slightly low at 3.9. This really makes sense. I’ve always thought that after such a long period of dormancy that there must be a trigger for the regular OBs.  So It makes sense because White blood cells fight infection.  Mine are low meaning my body isn’t flighting infection as well as it could. 

Unfortunately more tests have followed as there are only so many things that cause a white blood count. 

So I’ve now been tested for: 

Liver

thyroid 

Kidneys 

Glucose 

HIV (scary but us HSV guys are a higher  risk -which I didn’t know) 

Full Blood Count. 

Celiac disease

Everthing was completely normal (apart from the low white Blood count) 

So back to square 1

While doing some more research on low white bloods I came across Vitamin D deficiency and how this can possibly affect production of WBC from

Your bone marrow. 

I’m now taking a massive 5000ui every morning with calcium because i don’t have dairy so I’ve started a calcium dosage too.  ( important to take D and calcium in the morning and don’t mix calcium And Magnesium together as they compete with absorption.  Magnesium should be taken at night. 

I’m only on day 2 so bear with me but I’m hoping after a few months to get my bloods redone and hoping that WBC will be in the high scale of 5/6. 

So what advice I would give to anyone suffering is: 

Get your bloods checked 

Get vitamin deficiency looked at 

Look at your diet/lifestyle

Be smarter about what vitamins your taking and when you take them. 

There could be a logical reason why your having the OBs more than normal and maybe a way you can try work out how best to reduce sand manage them. 

My triggers is my period so it will be interesting to see if the vitamin D has an impact of my WBC and thus increase my body’s chance of fighting the infection back into hibernation. 

At 62 I have continual outbreaks if I dont take 1000mg of valtrex per day. Even with that I have tingling just before my morning and evening dose. What I have noticed is that stops when I go on bioidentical estrogen cream. Within a week of taking it. This has happened both times I have started estrogen after a long time not taking it. I think this is why in menopause with a drop in estrogen we can find our herpes attacks increase. There is not much research on this but some (done on mice).

I would be interested in others who have experienced this using hormone relacement.

Ive had hsv2 for 25 years with normal outbreaks a couple times a years. All of the sudden, last March, after totally going through menopause, I started getting OBs every month, and sometimes a couple times a month. nothing helps either. This has to be hormonal and associated with MP. You would think that doctors would have more information on this, or keep track of reporting data from menopausal women. Anyone know where we could find that info? Im also curious about HRT- anyone ever cured their hormonal OB uptake by using this therapy?

This forum is one of the 1st 5 scenes since I've contracted HS V-2 last December 2022. I'm 54 and I think this was something I contracted when I was younger and it's just now come out. I seem to have bouts of this all the time and I just found out that I'm in menopause and I'm wondering if that's it, as I've done some research and it does say hormone changes can trigger a herpes outbreak. I'm on suppressive medicine but it doesn't seem like it helps that much either. It will and then as soon as I'm done a few days later I break out again. Again, I think menopause is really causing this and getting ready to go to a gynecologist to talk about what I can do for my menopause and hopefully it'll help my HSV breakouts. I can't take hormone replacement therapy because I get blood clots so hopefully natural supplements will help my menopausal symptoms. It's so frustrating.