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Husband tested positive in a blood test for herpes?
First of all, let me express my sympathies to you and your husband. It can be difficult to deal with a herpes diagnosis - primarily because of the emotional vulnerability. Your husband probably feels ashamed, and diseased, and frightened. He'll need your suppport as he gets used to the idea that he has genital herpes.
Unfortunately, this is not like tuberculosis where you can show antibodies in your blood but not be contagious. If you have herpes, then you have herpes. Forever. The end. Do not pass go. Do not collect $ 200.
The bad news: You can have herpes (HSV1 or HSV2) for years without knowing it or showing any symptoms. Even when you aren't showing symptoms, it is possible to spread it. So if he has HSV2, he will always have it and, at times, be contagious.
The good news: He is only contagious when he is having an outbreak. Now, he will have outbreaks with symptoms that are so mild that he doens't know he's having an outbreak. So it will be impossible to tell when he is contagious and when he is not. But herpes is not like a game of tag - one touch and you have "it." Once you know the situation, it is relatively easy to dramatically reduce the chances that your partner will catch herpes.
Assuming he had HSV2 on his genitals, you'll want to never have sex when he knows he's having an outbreak. You may also want to use condoms at other times, to prevent him from tranmitting the virus to you when he's having an outbreak that is not accompanied by symptoms. And he may choose to begin taking an antiviral drug, which has shown to reduce the chances of transmission during these mysterious outbreaks-without-symptoms.
A study conducted on couples where one partner has herpes showed a transmission rate of less than 2% per year. This assumes that they did not have sex when the infected partner was having an outbreaks, and we don't know if they were using condoms. Still, its a reason to be optimistic. And transmission rates were even less when the infected partner was on anti-viral drugs.
I should point out that, with a blood test it is impossible to know WHERE he is infected with HSV2. It is possible, although not probable, that he actually had HSV2 on his mouth. In this case, you'll need to be careful that you don't catch it from him during oral sex.
For more information on herpes symptoms, testing and transmission, check out the web site of the American Social Health Association. They have up-to-date, reliable information on herpes, and also have a toll-free hotline (in the US) where you can speak to a real human being about your herpes diagnosis. I've put the link below.
Good luck. And feel free to email me with more questions. You can have a normal life. You can have herpes-free children. It will be okay.no need to worry. effective anti viral drugs are available and you will have a normal pregnancy.he is possibly a carrier of herpes which means that he could never or rarely have symptoms/outbreaks of herpes. if he doesn't have outbreaks the risk is lowered but there is still a small risk that u could get herpes. i got them from a herpes carrier so its still possible that he could pass them on. u can still have healthy children, the doctor may suggest that u have a c section (if u have herpes) in order to prevent the baby from getting herpes. he should be on suppressive medication which would cut the risk of passing them down. herpes can still be contagious even if he is carrying herpes.
Orignal From: CaliforniaSTD.com, Los Angeles & OC STD testing and Treatment Center
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