I would say that it depends on how severe your shingles outbreak is. In my case, I spent a week in the hospital on a morphine pump when shingles covered the entire right half of my torso. Then I suffered from post-herpetic neuralgia (nerve damage), which itself is very painful, for almost two years afterward. Shingles was by far the most painful medical condition I have ever experienced. My GD is awful, but I wouldn't trade it for shingles.