Hi! I’m a female who was diagnosed with ghsv1 a year ago, and I’ve been finding it difficult to confirm that I’m having an outbreak. Every month or two, I’ll get a small painful spot on a similar place on my vulva, and I’ve been assuming they’ve been outbreaks. It’s just frustrating because they don’t seem very similar to the lesions experienced by most other ghsv1 people.

They usually are very hard to see, if not impossible to. They never produce a noticeable amount of fluid or scab up. And usually, I don’t get prodrome symptoms so I have no idea they’re coming until they become painful. I’m scared I’m going to have sex with my partner before I notice one of these outbreaks. The only thing that makes me confident that they’re hsv outbreaks is because they cause a similar pain to my initial outbreak.

Does anyone experience something similar or have advice? I’m already taking antivirals daily. I just don’t want to be so in the dark with this virus.