Genital Herpes Treatment
Treat your outbreaks, and relieve
your symptoms.
Although genital herpes cannot be cured,
and you will have it for the rest of your life, it is treatable. There
are a variety of different medications, therapies, vitamins, herbs,
ointments, creams, and things you can do to make it easier to live
with. Lifestyle changes can also be made to cut down on the recurrence
of outbreaks. Many people with genital herpes believe some of these
things will help prevent further outbreaks. Some people experience
pain during outbreaks.
Some people even have severe pain. You
can take painkillers for the pain such as, antidepressants, and epilepsy
medication. Over the counter medicines are usually not enough, but
you can try them first, such as Tylenol.
There are many different types of treatments
to choose from. A couple of those are episodic and suppression therapies.
Episodic medications treat the outbreaks as they happen. It will help
lessen the pain and length of the outbreak. The medication should
be taken as soon as the person knows they are having an outbreak,
and works best if it is taken before blisters appear. Some people
have warning symptoms of an outbreak, such as burning, tingling, or
itching.
Suppression therapy is taken over a long
period of time, and is usually recommended for people who experience
frequent outbreaks. If an outbreak does occur, the medication is already
in your body. One five-year study determined that twenty percent of
people using suppression therapy reported no outbreaks at all while
on the medication. Some people even combine both the suppression and
the episodic medications, taking one for a period of time, and then
switching to the other.
Some oral medications are Viraway (see
"new research"), Isoprinosine, Famvir, and Zovirax. It is important
to discuss any of these options with your doctor.
There are also some topical creams, including
prescription and non-prescription creams. Of the prescription creams,
there is Zovirax cream, and Cidofovir cream. Zovirax cream should
be applied to the infected area as soon as an outbreak is known. The
FDA has not approved Cidofovir, but it has been used in the treatment
of severe outbreaks that can occur with people living with HIV and
genital herpes.
There are also some non-prescription
medications, but it's important to be careful in choosing these. The
FDA has not approved most, and some are merely scams. It would be
a good idea to consult your doctor about any medications. Some non-prescription
medications include, Viraderm, Herpasil, and Coraphor, which are topical
creams.
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