HPV Question

Dear Doctor:

I have been seeing a married man for the past year and my recent Pap Smear exam came back positive with HPV. Prior to him, I dated the same guy for 10 years and very certain that he did not have sexual contact with another woman and my pap smear has always been normal.  Now with this married man, he claims that his wife has been getting pap smear exams every year and her test has always been negative so he can not possibly be the person who gave me the virus.  Is this true?  If I have HPV, how can his wife not have it too?

thank you

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Welcome to the STD forum.  I'll try to help.

This is a very common circumstance, i.e. HPV and/or an abnormal pap showing up in mysterious fashion without obvious source.  It's the main reason that many experts and the general public were initially skeptical when the data began to show that it's a sexually transmitted virus; many infections show up as abnormal paps in women who seemed not to be at risk for STD, with no new partners recently etc.  But situations like yours don't mean the virus wasn't sexually acquired.  The patient and/or her partner (and their other partners) can have silent infections for months or years, with normal pap smears, that then become active and show up on testing.

In other words, probably you will never know from whom or when you caught it.  It is equally likely from your newer (married) partner, from your previous 10 year partner, or from some distant past partner not mentioned here.  If your new married partner has had other extramarital partners, perhaps he has been infected recently by some other partner.  Otherwise, he is no more likely the source of your problem than some other partner in your past.

At this juncture, your attention should be on your own health, i.e. follow the advice of the provider managing your cervical abnormalities.  That will protect you from actual cancer, which is a rare outcome anyway.  But try not to dwell on the source, which unfortunately you are unlikely to ever know with certainty.

Best wishes--  HHH, MD