Table 3 Factors that doctors might consider when determining if suppressive therapy is appropriate (% ranked among top three factors)

To reduce the frequency of outbreaks	81
To reduce the likelihood of transmitting the virus	71
To reduce the severity of each outbreak	58
To reduce the duration of each outbreak	34
To reduce the psychological distress of recurrent outbreaks to the patient	30
To reduce the psychological distress of the risk of transmitting genital herpes to a partner	25

Values are the number of doctors out of 151 who considered the factor when determining if suppressive therapy is appropriate.