If you have herpes and plan to be sexually active with someone new, you owe it to them and to yourself to be honest about your own infection. You can spread the infection even if your virus is inactive and you don’t have open sores. Try practicing storytelling with a trusted friend or in front of a mirror. And keep calm. Keep your words simple and clear, and be prepared to answer any questions.
In general, people with herpes find that with time and a better understanding of the disease, talking to new partners becomes easier. They also discover that herpes doesn’t affect their intimate relationships and sex life as much as they originally feared. Unprotected sex is not a guarantee of protection against sexually transmitted diseases. Most sexually transmitted diseases can be spread through sex.
To protect yourself, make sure your partner uses a condom if you have sex; if he is having sex with you or if you are having sex with a woman, use a condom. You can find them at some medical supply stores. They provide a barrier during sexual intercourse. The best protection against any type of sexually transmitted disease is a latex condom. However, it doesn’t provide 100 percent protection against STDs, only abstinence does. If you use a condom, be sure to use it correctly. Human error causes more condom failures than manufacturing errors. Use a new condom with every act of sex. Handle it carefully so as not to damage it with nails, teeth, or other sharp objects.
Use only water-based lubricants with latex condoms. Ensure adequate lubrication during sexual intercourse. No one tests screens for all STDs. Some require a vaginal exam and Pap smear; others have blood or urine tests. Just because you have a negative test does not mean that you do not have the disease. Chlamydia, for example, can travel high up in your reproductive tract, so your healthcare professional can’t get a culture. Or your body may not have developed enough antibodies to a virus like HIV or HPV to show up in a blood test.
Still, it’s important to ask your healthcare professional for regular STD testing if you are sexually active in a non-monogamous relationship (or if you have the slightest concern about your partner’s fidelity). You can get tested at your health department, community clinic, private doctor, or planned parenting. While some STDs can present with symptoms such as sores or ulcers or discharge, most, unfortunately, have no symptoms.
Women are even more likely than men to have STDs without symptoms. Women are also more likely to develop serious complications from STDs. You can’t always tell if you or your partner have an STD just by looking. Don’t trust your partner’s self-report and assume that it will prevent you from getting an STD; many infected people do not know they have a problem. They may think the symptoms are caused by something else, such as yeast infections, friction from sexual intercourse, or allergies. Educate yourself about your own body and, in turn, learn about your own individual risk of getting an STD. One way to do this is to schedule an exam with a healthcare provider who can sit down with you and help you learn the principles of staying safe and sexually healthy.
Don’t let fear, shame, or ignorance jeopardize your future. Sexually transmitted diseases are particularly common among teens. And it is an issue that worries children. Parents can play an important role in your teen’s behavior, both in terms of the behavior you model and in terms of the communication between you and your teen. Make sure your daughter has regular visits with a competent gynecologist and that your child sees a medical professional who specializes in adolescent health at least once a year, if only for a simple talk about STDs and the pregnancy. And talk to your children. Study after study shows that when parents talk to their children about sexual matters, their children listen. Don’t worry that talking about sex is the same as tolerating it; Hundreds of studies question that theory.
In fact, studies show that when parents talk about sex, children are more likely to talk about it themselves, delay their first sexual experiences, and protect themselves against pregnancy and disease when they have sex. Unfortunately, there is no known “cure” for herpes. The use of condoms is recognized as the most reliable method of preventing transmission of the virus. However, there are effective treatments that can reduce the frequency and severity of outbreaks, stop viral reproduction, and lower viral load, all of which greatly mitigate outbreaks and allow patients to control the condition.
Acyclovir is the most popular drug prescribed for herpes. However, the emergence of virus strains resistant to acyclovir has created the need to develop new effective antiviral agents. New antherpetic chemical drug compounds have been identified, but they have significant adverse effects when consumed and HSV has again developed drug resistance to these new compounds.
Since new chemical drug options are not feasible, alternative antiviral options are being investigated with great interest. Recent scientific studies of antiviral medicinal plant extracts show very encouraging results and have prompted a new methodology for treating herpes. Studies of these antiviral extracts show that many of these compounds exhibit significant anti-herpetic activity. In fact, several inactivate VHS with great efficiency. These antiviral extracts represent effective new treatment options for therapeutic use as virucidal agents for recurrent herpes infections.