hpv in older women (45+)

I have heard that hpv usually has cleared out in older women. Is this true ? How about repeated infections ?
Also that mostly HPV is found in young adults in their 20s, is there any stats that i can look up ?

[alkaloid]

anyone ?

[mkh9]

HI, to answer your questions:
1. No, women in their 40's can still get HPV.
2. It is a lot less common to get HPV in women in their 40's and repeated infections are possible depending on your sex life, but usually most women in their 40's don't get so many repeated infections.
3.Yes HPV is much more common in women in their 20's. These can be high or low risk types and they can come and go and most don't amount to anything. When a high risk type sets up and gets integrated into your DNA in your 20's and it isn't caught then it takes years to get cancer from it usually in your 40's. So, if you do get HPV in your 40's and it is high risk it is more likely not a transient infection and could be cancerous or become cancerous.At the moment I don't have references. I am sure the CDC and Cleveland clinic and even Wikipedia can answer your questions. Hope this helps and feel free to ask more if you can't a good source of info.
mkh9

[Hollyv]

Did you have a normal Pap and test HPV positive or did you have a mildly abnormal Pap and test HPV positive?

[alkaloid]

dont have access to Pap :(

[Hollyv]

I don't know where you live? In the United States, an HPV Test is usually reflexed which means taken from the original Pap smear specimen—this is done with the Liquid Pap Smear. There are some countries that are now doing the HPV test first, to look at the “risk for cancer”—This is usually done in underdeveloped countries. And there are some places that use a self swab to test for HPV, but the self swabs are very unreliable. A positive HPV result without having a Pap smear really does not tell you much. If you have a positive HPV and normal Pap—you just need repeat tests in a year because there is not much risk. If you have a positive HPV test and any of the abnormal levels of Pap smear results—then there are different plans depending on the level of abnormal.

Most of the stats are written in complicated medical articles. The stats would all compare HPV and an abnormal Pap and then they would go on to compare the colposcopy result and the biopsy result. A positive HPV test without any further tests is unreliable to indicate either a risk for cancer or if you have any cervical dysplasia which would be any abnormal cervical infection.