Anon (London, UK) on 06/18/2008

I have not tried any doctor prescribed medicine at all - in fact on both tests at the STI clinic I came up negative for G-Herpes, amusing really, I didn't have a blood test but it shows the swab tests are scarily poor! There is no question though, it is def Genital Herpes I have.
I researched the web everywhere for help and found this site to have the most sensible suggestions and promised myself that I'd comment on here in the future. My symptoms were not as bad as the pictures you see on the web, but we're more than enough to put me off sex for a while, general inflammation of the skin near the head of the penis (redder than it should be), slightly itchy tingles like you have a pubic hair caught in your foreskin, tiny blisters which seeped a little for the first few months, these died down a bit to a less obvious soreness, but still obvious to me! As time goes by the symptoms seem to naturally slow down and come out less aggressively which makes sense - but they still appeared each month or even every few weeks. Just as I thought probably gone this time - there the usual redness/tiny sores would pop up again.

I tried using non-scented soaps - the usual high street suspects, I'd wash my penis each morning and night, but you get a bit worried about aggravating the already seemingly angry Virus so I was always cautious what I washed with! I found the Bach remedies to be a bit of a hassle, you'd end up going to the bathroom at work, putting a few drops on the areas which were aggravated, then standing there with your penis out waiting for it to dry, the Bach remedy also left you a little sticky as it is sweet, but none the less worth a try!

Anyway, cutting a long story short I was in Waitrose (English Supermarket) about 9 months back and picked up a bar of soap as part of my continuous attempt to find something that helps. The soap was made by Tisserand and is called Tisserand Organic Tea-Tree Soap. It comes in a cardboard packet and is a 100g bar of green soap. This soap which says it has "naturally antiseptic properties" seems to have worked at cutting down my symptoms, in fact it's almost eradicated them. Costs about %3 a bar. I wash my penis in the morning and evening with the soap, just lather the soap up in my hands and then wash myself with it, I also use it for the rest of my body as it's really nice soap anyway. I've not had an outbreak for ages, and the soap seemed cut outbreaks almost as soon as I started using it. It is possible that the timing of when I bought the soap coincided with my bodies natural defense to overcome the continuous virus outbreaks, (I started using it about 20 months into contracting GH - but I was still getting outbreaks roughly every 4-6 weeks at the time) but I would say it's more likely the soap does have something in it that helps massively. I can pretty much eat anything now and can go out on a drinking bender without worrying too much about the consequences.

In summary, get your body back on a healthy diet/lifestyle. Try and get good sleep hours to save you from being run down, don't go out drinking too much. If your system is run down then the virus is stronger. Cut out artificial sweeteners altogether, I didn't notice any obvious worsening as a result of consuming them, but everyone else seems to suffer so I just eliminated them from my diet - if you need sweets then eat things with natural sugars - honey sandwiches for example. Definitely try this soap Tisserand, make sure it's the bar of soap I've mentioned above as I think they do quite a few ranges in liquid form etc - I'm sure it's what helped me. I completely stopped Bachs remedies as soon as I started using the soap -they're really a bit of a hassle and people always ask you what they're for. I still drink the ACV every few days or so just because it's quite good for you, I also drink a lot of green tea as it's an excellent anti-oxidant.

It may be the amount of time I've had it, but at 20 months in I was convinced the GH was going to keep recurring regularly and was finding it was really controlling my life, I planned everything around it. Now 29 months in it's no longer really a hassle for me at all and hasn't been for the last 9 months since I first started using the soap. So my conclusion is it's either time or the soap that's done the most for me - so if it's time then there's light at the end of the tunnel for most of us, and if it's the soap then I'd recommend you at least try it - I'm not going to stop using it (ever!) - so Good luck Team H, my thoughts are with you!!!! Two other things; I also cut my pubic hair pretty short as I found it would get caught in my foreskin on occasion and cause unnecessary itching - guess that's a guy thing! And also I only wear loose cotton underwear, generally Ralph Lauren as I'm pretty cool like that ;-) Good Luck!