I'm 55 yrs old, married for 33 years. My husband and I have been monogamous, and have not had sex for at least a year. My doctor has said that the virus can lay dormant all your life. I gues I just find it strange to come out now. Can menopause with acute vaginal dryness have anything to do with outbreakoing now?

Welcome to the boards

How did they diagnose you as having genital herpes? Did they do any testing to know if you have hsv1 or hsv2 genitally?

Yes indeed you can have genital herpes for years and not realize it until later on. Menapause , vaginal dryness and also vaginal infections can cause you to have a more obvious ob than previously too to make you take notice.

betsy

_________________
ASHA Moderator

I was diagnosed with cultures taken of 2 different lesions. They also did a blood test to determine HSV 1 or 2. Those results shoud be back this week. If those results show HSV 2 my gynecologist reccommended my husband to have the blood test also. If he carries the virus what would that mean for him, and why test him if he's never had an outbreak?

The thing with herpes is ( and you'll find lots of info on the herpes forum here for more reading ) that most folks who are infected, just aren't recognizing the signs of the virus being active. Sometimes it's brushed off as being redness and itching from irritation, soaps, clothing etc. It's frequently misdiagnosed as yeast - either jock itch in males or fungal infections in females and all sort of other symptoms that it's easily mistaken for. Most folks are never tested for it to know their status. Hubby needs tested regardless so that you two can decide what precautions to take, if any.

So right now you just have a visual diagnosis of herpes yourself and are awaiting lesion cultures and blood test results? Or did the lesion cultures come back + for herpes and you are waiting for blood tests to determine type?

betsy

_________________
ASHA Moderator

Cultures positive, awaiting blood work. I know for positive I have never had an outbreak before and neither has my husband. My gynecologist said this could very well have laid dormant for a long time and doesn't know what could have brought them out now, but that menopause and dryness could have been a factor.

If they still have the sample, call them right away and perhaps they could do it and then you'd know both the type and the location. That would be much more useful than a blood test that won't indicate the location. Too, if this is a new infection, a blood test may not be accurate as it takes some time for antibodies to appear. The advantage to having one now is that it establishes a baseline. The test they should be doing is a type-specific IgG (Not IgM).

_________________
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Paraphrased from Mark Twain

Hi Rajah! Thanks for posting.

Fredo

_________________
ASHA Moderator