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Valtrex and antivirals--please share your experience

herpesbaby

Senior Member
Messages
180
I've been sick for 14 weeks. Contacted genital herpes 16 weeks ago. Took acyclovir 7 weeks after contacting herpes. Didn't help with symptoms(sleepiness, dizziness, fatigue, drooping eyelids, headache, low grade fever), so I've prescribed Valtrex, Immunovir and Immunoglobulin beta to myself.
Been on valtrex 1gx3 times a day for a month. Do I need to continue it?

Someone said antivirals suppress immune system's natural responses. Is it true?

One bump from genital herpes never ever bothered me, and it is still there. Got tested for everything under the Sun.

Please help.
 

Wonkmonk

Senior Member
Messages
1,006
Location
Germany
Are you a doctor? Asking bc you wrote you can prescribe for yourself.

I assume you are already familiar with the studies of Dr Lerner, right?

If you are following his Valtrex protocol to treat CFS, you would have to take it for several months for any effect to show. Dr Lerner also recommends a higher dose (1gr 4x daily).

He also says that you need to be tested for other herpes virus and bacterial co-infections that can make Valtrex treatment ineffective if not treated separately.
 

Jonathan Edwards

"Gibberish"
Messages
5,256
I've been sick for 14 weeks. Contacted genital herpes 16 weeks ago. Took acyclovir 7 weeks after contacting herpes. Didn't help with symptoms(sleepiness, dizziness, fatigue, drooping eyelids, headache, low grade fever), so I've prescribed Valtrex, Immunovir and Immunoglobulin beta to myself.
Been on valtrex 1gx3 times a day for a month. Do I need to continue it?

Someone said antivirals suppress immune system's natural responses. Is it true?

One bump from genital herpes never ever bothered me, and it is still there. Got tested for everything under the Sun.

Please help.

You need to ask a doctor who knows your case. It is a policy here that medical advice is not to be given. Nobody here has any idea what is wrong with you so it is impossible say anything sensible.
 

Hutan

Senior Member
Messages
1,099
Location
New Zealand
@herpesbaby, this was my experience:

Some six months in to my ME illness, I started getting oral cold sores, all the time. As in, often I'd have two, but I'd always have at least one. An infectious diseases doctor investigating my ME illness prescribed Valtrex which stopped the cold sores.

I don't know if herpes caused the ME, I think it is unlikely as I and my family had a stomach virus immediately before we became ill. And my children, also with ME, did not have such a problem with cold sores. I think it is likely that, by trying to continue to work and push myself, my body was so exhausted that it couldn't keep the herpes under control.

So, I stayed on the valtrex for 18 months or so. Every time I ran out of valtrex and didn't take it for even a day, I'd get another cold sore. But after that 18 months, I found I could stay cold sore free without it. Perhaps that was partly because I stopped trying to work and do pilates and generally just eased up on physical activity. When I reported not needing valtrex anymore to my GP she said that she found that most of her patients who took valtrex for genital herpes found that they didn't get sores after taking the anti-viral for 18 months or two years, so she wasn't surprised.

By the way, I don't think the valtrex improved my ME symptoms, although reducing the disease burden by stopping the cold sores is surely a good thing. And it was nice not to have painful sores on my lips all the time. I certainly don't think the valtrex made me worse in any way, but of course it is impossible to know how I would have been if I had not taken it.

After another two years or so, I started getting cold sores again. However, they are much less frequent. Just the other day, I felt really good and had a busy day. By the night time, I had PEM, felt as if I had been run over by a steamroller and everything ached. And a cold sore came up on my lip.

In my opinion, sorting out your genital herpes is a good idea, but I would not be at all hopeful that valtrex will fix your other symptoms.