GoMDUSA is a convenient way to get prescription-strength cold sore medicines without going to a doctor's office. If our medical team thinks you have cold sores, we can send a prescription to your local pharmacy for you to pick-up and pay for your medicines.
Select whether you want medicine for an immediate outbreak or daily preventative treatment, then select the specific medicine you'd like us to prescribe. Answer our health questions, select a pharmacy in your area, and pay our $25 visit fee out of pocket.
Someone from our medical team will review your request within 24 hours during the business day. In some states, you'll have an immediate video visit with a member of our medical team after you pay our visit fee.
If our medical team gives you a prescription we'll send it to your local pharmacy, so that you can go to the pharmacy to pick-up and pay for your medicine. If you have insurance, you should be able to use your insurance to pay for your medicines at the pharmacy.
Anyone age 18 or over and who lives the states that GoMDUSA serves.
Some health conditions mean we won't be able to give you a prescription for cold sore treatment, but we'll ask you about those when you complete your online visit.
If you've never had a cold sore before we won't be able to give you prescription because we think you should see a doctor or nurse practitioner in person for your initial diagnosis. First time infection of cold sores can be quite painful for some patients and can include severe sore throat, swollen neck glands, and fever. Other symptoms can include neck stiffness or eye pain. If you have these types of symptoms we recommend you see a doctor or nurse practitioner in person.
Yes. Based on your symptoms and medical history we can diagnose cold sores. We don't need to see a photo of your cold sores.
There are 2 types of treatment: treatment for an immediate outbreak or daily preventative treatment. The prescription medicines we prescribe for both types of treatment are antivirals.
Treatment for an immediate outbreak aims to make your symptoms go away faster.
Daily preventative treatment aims to stop you getting so many outbreaks, and if you do get outbreaks, they should be less severe and not last as long.
We prescribe the oral antiviral medicines acyclovir 400 mg, valacyclovir 1g or 1000 mg, and famicyclovir 500 mg tablets to treat an immediate outbreak.
For daily preventative treatment we prescribe acyclovir 400mg and valacyclovir 500mg.
The FDA approved use of valacyclovir or famicyclovir for treating cold sores when they come on. We offer these medicines explicitly for these uses.
Although commonly prescribed in the US to treat cold sores, the FDA has not approved use of acyclovir for immediate outbreak or acyclovir or valacyclovir for daily preventative treatment to treat cold sores the way we prescribe them. This means the way we prescribe them is ‘off-label' use. Please note, these medicines are commonly in this manner and as outlined in peer reviewed medical references.
The risks of taking any medicine include side effects or allergic reaction to the medicine. This is true with any prescription or over-the-counter medicine. In addition, the treatment we give you at first may not work as well as expected, which may mean you'll need to change your medicines, add medicines, or see a doctor or nurse practitioner in person.
It's possible that you may see no improvement because your symptoms are due to something else besides cold sores. In this case, you'll have used medicine for cold sores unnecessarily and delayed your care.
If you don't feel like your cold sores are getting better after 3-5 days of treatment, please send us a message so that we can give you additional advice. We may encourage you to see a doctor or nurse practitioner in person.
There are over-the-counter (OTC) medicines treatments as well as other prescription medicine available for cold sores. OTC medicines are typically less effective and generally have fewer potential side effects.
You also have the option of not taking any treatment for your cold sores. Only take a treatment if you think the risks outweigh the benefits.
With treatment, a cold sore outbreak should go away within 5-10 days.
If you take the daily preventative treatment, you should have fewer cold sore breakouts and when they occur they should be less severe and last a shorter amount of time.
Cold sores occur whenever the virus wakes up (reactivation) in the body. Things that can trigger cold sores include exposure to sunlight, having a menstrual period, stress, injury to the skin where the cold sore appears, dental work, or having some other illness. Each person's trigger may be different.
Avoiding these triggers can help decrease the number of cold sore breakouts you have.
If you have cold sores 5 of more times per year consider taking a daily medicine to prevent outbreaks (preventative or suppression therapy). You can get a prescription for this through our service.
If you have cold sores breakouts 5 or more times per year we recommend trying a daily medicine to help keep the blisters from popping up. This is known as preventative or suppressive therapy. If the medicine is working we would usually recommend taking it for a year and then stopping to see if the cold sores still come back. If you don't want to take a daily medicine you can also try taking a medicine as soon as you feel the cold sores coming back.
Cold sores are caused by a type of ‘herpes simplex virus' (HSV) that infects the mouth and then hides out in the nerve of the face. Most people don't know they've been infected by the virus and you can have the virus for years before you have your first cold sore outbreak.
Your first outbreak can be quite painful with severe sore throat, swollen neck glands, and fever. Other symptoms can include neck stiffness or eye pain. If you have these types of symptoms yourself then we recommend you see a doctor or nurse practitioner in person.
Once the virus is in the nerve, it can come back as an outbreak of small blisters or sores on or around the mouth any time. You may notice a tingling, itching, burning around your lips before a cold sore outbreak. Within a few hours to a couple of days, painful blisters will appear. The blisters usually heal within 1 week
Once you have the virus that causes cold sores, it never goes away. The good news is that most people get fewer outbreaks as they get older.