Frequent Herpes Outbreaks? Try This

From a former frequent-outbreak gal

Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash

Disclaimer: This is my personal experience only. I’m not a doctor, and this is not medical advice. Always consult a medical professional before trying anything.

When I first got diagnosed with herpes, I began identifying with the phrase “statistical anomaly”.

Why?

I was told by my doctor that HSV-1 normally doesn’t like the area down below, so recurrences aren’t as common…but somehow, I had an outbreak every month for eight months since contracting G HSV-1.

I was eating healthy. I exercised. I wasn’t dealing with constant stress. I slept well. I was trying so many different supplements and cutting out lots of different food groups that could trigger outbreaks.

But you know what didn’t care? Herpes! It was obsessed with me.

My original doctor put me on 1000 mg of antivirals daily during and after my first month (Valacyclovir, often shortened as “Valtrex”). For most people, taking oral antivirals daily completely prevents outbreaks, if they even need to take daily suppression medication at all.

And yet, I was still having outbreaks. FUN, right?

Soon after, that doctor told me to increase my daily dose to 2000 mg. Not knowing much about medication doses, I went along. You can imagine how badly I just wanted to feel normal again.

That doctor also recommended that, at the start of a new outbreak, I should increase my dose to 3000 mg for a few days. But even on higher doses of oral antivirals, it still seemed that anything and everything would trigger an outbreak.

Although the meds decreased the severity of my outbreaks, they did nothing for prevention, and I was feeling hopeless.

I then went to see a gynecologist. She said I’m taking a toxic dose of antivirals and need to decrease to 1000 mg daily, and that they’d never seen a case like mine and there was nothing they could do.

Safe to say I bawled in front of her, and then bawled even harder once I realized I had more days with an outbreak than not over my first eight months, and that my original doctor had so casually recommended a toxic dose of antivirals to me. (Please heed that advice and avoid anything higher than 1000 mg of Valtrex as a daily dose.)

And then, (what felt like) a miracle happened. I had little hope, but I decided I would go to a dermatologist. I told her my situation. She was kind and understanding. She said it’s clear the oral meds aren’t working, but since they do seem to help with the severity of my outbreaks (they made my outbreaks pretty minor), I can keep taking them.

She also said that the safest dose to take is 500 mg a day of Valtrex, and during an outbreak, to kick it up to 1000 mg for 48 hours, and then back down.

She then decided to try something different that no other doctor mentioned to me: She recommended I apply topical antivirals to the outbreak locations. She acknowledged that oral meds hadn’t worked to prevent outbreaks for me and that I needed to try fighting it a different way. She prescribed acyclovir ointment at 5%.

Within three days of applying the ointment to my outbreak location, my outbreak was completely gone. They normally would take three weeks to go away. She said I could apply it every day to the area I typically get outbreaks as a preventive measure.

I finally felt like I could breathe again. The constant outbreaks had been weighing on me heavily and affecting my daily life, and I thought I’d be stuck in the 0.003% of people that are in the same boat as me and would feel unlucky forever.

It’s been over four years since then, and I still rarely ever get an outbreak. I apply the ointment every 1-4 days now.

If you’re in a similar situation, maybe give the topicals a try!

And if your doctor isn’t helping or listening to you (I had a few experiences like that), get a new doctor. One doctor even told me as I was crying, “EVERYONE has health problems. You have to get over it.”

I never saw that doctor again after that. It’s worth it to have someone who cares about your mental and physical health.

Okay…now let’s chat about getting a prescription. I didn’t have good health insurance when I first was going through all that, and the topicals are fairly expensive in the U.S, so I had to find a loophole.

If you’re in the U.S. and don’t have health insurance/don’t have good insurance, here are some options to keep costs low (you’ll need a prescription from a doctor first!):

Disclaimer (again!): This is for informational purposes only to share ways to reduce prescription costs. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional before using any medication. I’m not affiliated with either of these companies.

• GoodRX coupon: Great coupon for 30 grams of acyclovir ointment at 5% to use when picking up the ointment at a pharmacy. Sometimes, the price will be relatively the same through insurance, but this coupon might actually be cheaper than what insurance is willing to pay. You can also use it if you don’t have any insurance! The price on these coupons can vary monthly, but for the most part and with certain pharmacies, it’s pretty affordable. You don’t need a GoodRX account and you can just take a screenshot of the coupon. No strings attached!

• Hellowisp.com: Wisp is an online tele-health platform. You can get the cream for a pretty reasonable price so long as one of their doctors can prescribe it to you. I found that the amount of acyclovir ointment/cream you get on this website isn’t as much as you would get with the GoodRX coupon through a typical pharmacy, but (as of January 2026) the concentration is higher at 10%.

These are the only two options I needed but I’m sure there’s a lot more! If you have other suggestions to reduce costs, let me know, and I can update this post with more info.

Lastly, as for my protocol, I am prescribed 30 grams of acyclovir ointment at 5%, monthly. 30 grams is a great amount for application every day or every few days. When I have an outbreak (which is rare), I apply it 2-3 times a day until the outbreak is gone. Sometimes, I’ll need an extra 15 gram tube to supplement that time period. I still take Valtrex oral tablets daily at 500 mg as I do think they help, and I want to protect my partner (who doesn’t have herpes) and decrease the likelihood of me passing it to him, which daily suppression meds can do.

I am incredibly thankful for that dermatologist who was willing to hear me out and work with me to find a solution.

I hope this helps and maybe works for someone else who’s in the same boat. (And even if this isn’t your solution, keep searching.)

If you’ve found other ways to manage frequent outbreaks, share them in the comments!

Need a hand? Grab my guide: it covers everything you need to know about having herpes, disclosing it to others (with scripts for frequent-outbreak pals!), building confidence, and moving forward. 🌱

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