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STDs (Expert Forum)
Atypical cells at 6 month exam after being diagnosed with HPV 16
Answered by
University of Washington
Seattle - WA
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This forum is limited to questions about STDs other than HIV/AIDS. For questions about HIV prevention, or if you have general questions about safe sex (e.g., condoms, how to protect yourself from HIV and STDs), please visit the HIV Prevention and Safe Sex Forum
Some of the most common types of questions concern the risk of HIV or STD after a particular sexual exposure, and about symptoms that might or might not be due to HIV. If your question is along these lines, please visit the HIV Prevention and Safe Sex Forum.
Atypical cells at 6 month exam after being diagnosed with HPV 16
by Bad_person, May 25, 2005 12:00AM
My wife was diagnosed with HPV 16 in November of 2004. She went in this month for her 6-month check up and was told there are atypical cells developing. She is scheduled for another visit next Tuesday so that the doctor can use a scope to see the extent. (Why that couldn’t have been done during the 6-month check is beyond me)
She has told me that this virus is a death sentence.
I have been doing allot of reading on the subject and found that the rate of cervical cancer is 1/10 of 1% of those women with high risk HPV. I pray she is not in that group. The problem is she isn’t sleeping and is barely eating. What is the normal course of events for women with high-risk strains? Should she expect to have a rise in atypical cells?
Help! I feel so bad about this.
She has told me that this virus is a death sentence.
I have been doing allot of reading on the subject and found that the rate of cervical cancer is 1/10 of 1% of those women with high risk HPV. I pray she is not in that group. The problem is she isn’t sleeping and is barely eating. What is the normal course of events for women with high-risk strains? Should she expect to have a rise in atypical cells?
Help! I feel so bad about this.
Doctor's Answer
by H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D., May 25, 2005 12:00AM
, May 25, 2005 12:00AM
Your description sounds like your wife is fortunate: she has found a doctor who knows a lot about HPV and is managing her correctly. She probably had a mildly abnormal pap in November, for which the recommendation is to follow up with repeat pap smears. The specific HPV type makes no difference in that advice. But if she has now developed more abnormal cells, then she needs colposcopy (the doctor's "scope").
The normal course of infection with HPV 16 is that very few women get cancer. Even the 0.1% risk you cite is on the high side; and that is without treatment. With the management her doctor is providing, your wife's risk of invasive cancer is zero, for prctical purposes. Your wife is absolutely wrong about her death sentence statement.
Your wife is following the same path as ens of thousands of women in the U.S. every year. Don't lose sleep over it. Getting HPV, even with type 6, is a normal event; not desirable, but normal.
Good luck-- HHH, MD
NOTICE TO ALL FORUM READERS INTERESTED IN HPV AND GENITAL WARTS: RUN, DO NOT WALK, TO READ THE LATEST INFORMATION FROM THE CDC. TWO YEARS AGO, CONGRESS MANDATED SPECIAL EMPHASIS BY CDC'S STD DIVISION ON HPV AND ITS PREVENTION. THE NEWLY DEVELOPED HPV INFORMATION IS ONE OF THE RESULTS. THE DOCUMENTS ARE EXCELLENT IN EVERY WAY. (THERE ARE SOME POLITICALLY DRIVEN STATEMENTS, INCLUDING SOME COMMENTS ABOUT NO GENITAL CONTACT, LIFELONG MONOGAMY, ETC, THAT ARE NOT RESPONSIVE TO MOST READERS' NEEDS. BUT IN GENERAL, EXCELLENT INFORMATION.)
http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm
The normal course of infection with HPV 16 is that very few women get cancer. Even the 0.1% risk you cite is on the high side; and that is without treatment. With the management her doctor is providing, your wife's risk of invasive cancer is zero, for prctical purposes. Your wife is absolutely wrong about her death sentence statement.
Your wife is following the same path as ens of thousands of women in the U.S. every year. Don't lose sleep over it. Getting HPV, even with type 6, is a normal event; not desirable, but normal.
Good luck-- HHH, MD
NOTICE TO ALL FORUM READERS INTERESTED IN HPV AND GENITAL WARTS: RUN, DO NOT WALK, TO READ THE LATEST INFORMATION FROM THE CDC. TWO YEARS AGO, CONGRESS MANDATED SPECIAL EMPHASIS BY CDC'S STD DIVISION ON HPV AND ITS PREVENTION. THE NEWLY DEVELOPED HPV INFORMATION IS ONE OF THE RESULTS. THE DOCUMENTS ARE EXCELLENT IN EVERY WAY. (THERE ARE SOME POLITICALLY DRIVEN STATEMENTS, INCLUDING SOME COMMENTS ABOUT NO GENITAL CONTACT, LIFELONG MONOGAMY, ETC, THAT ARE NOT RESPONSIVE TO MOST READERS' NEEDS. BUT IN GENERAL, EXCELLENT INFORMATION.)
http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm
Good luck !!!