HPV Question

[millaw]

Thank you Doctor for being a source of information & comfort to so many.  I am a 38-year old, divorced, sexually active male.  Query:  My girlfriend of 4 months had an abnormal pap smear 1.5 years ago, followed by 3 normal smears. her most recent one was again abnormal.  I surmise (?) that said abnormality is attributable to HPV.  Could it be attributable to something else?  I have never had warts.  If her abnormal pap is ascribed to HPV (she has never had warts), I assume that I am infected and my fear is developing warts. Is it l,ikely that I will? Put differently, if her pap abnormality is attributable to HPV, and I am infected, what symptoms will I develop?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

You can be quite certain your girlfriend's abnormal pap is due to HPV, since that's the reason for the vast majority of abnormal pap results.

You can be equally certain that you are or have been infected with HPV.  We all are--that is, at least 80% of sexually active persons have had HPV.  So just like almost everybody you know, you have some chance of developing genital warts, if your partner happens to be infected with the common wart-causing HPV types, like HPV-6 and HPV-11.  But most likely you will never develop symptoms--like most infected people.

From the information you provide, there is no way to know whether you and your girlfriend are sharing a particular strain of HPV, or whether her newly abnormal pap represents reactivation of her previous infection, or a new one.  And thus no way to know whether you are infected.

Getting genital HPV is normal and expected.  Not desirable, but happens to most people.  You really need not worry about this at all; it is unlikely to cause health problems in you, and since you and your partner most likely are sharing her current HPV infection already, there is no need to alter your sexual activities with her.  

Happily, the new HPV vaccines will change this situation to the better in coming years.  (But the benefits will experienced primarily by young people, not yet sexually active--not by old guys like you and me.)

Best wishes--  HHH, MD

[millaw]

Thank you for your prompt, helpful response. I was operating under the fallacious impression that an abnormality on a Pap Smear attributable to HPV was not symptom-producing.  I thought I had read that somewhere in a previous thread.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Both wart-causing and non-wart-causing HPV strains can cause pap smear abnormalities.  There is no way to know which your partner has, but the wart-causing types are less common.   You should be on the lookout for genital warts, but I don't expect you to develop them.

HHH, MD