Please advice

[joestrauss]

I am 32 single male, 6  months back had protected sex with a woman of unknown status,i had protected oral and vaginal sex  with her.Before this sexual encounter i have been sexually active
with few other partners in the past few years. Around 3 months after my past encounter i got my
bloodwork done for Hep B & C virus, HIV,Herpes 1 & 2,Syphilis,Chlymdia and gonnohrea.All the tests were negative to my relief.Although i have folliculitis, my doctor prescribed me medicne for
that.

Sometime back i saw a tiny wart on my scrotum, i was not sure if its a wart or a mole,since the
age of 12 (even before i was sexually active) i had a wart/mole on my buttock. A few days back
i noticed tiny pimples(2-3) at the rear side of my penis, but there is so much pubic hair that
i cant figure out if its hair follicle or an actual bump or wart of suspicious nature.I had read regarding HPV, and how it causes genital warts, also had gone through the faq. I had read that the immune system clears the HPV virus on its own. I had a few questions regarding HPV.

1. Is HPV a reportable disease??If i goto a doctor and get diagonised for HPV, will it be reported to the health department.
2. I had done a physical examination of my scrotum and penile region with my general practioner
    and he said not to worry, he does notice anything, i dont know how he didnt notice the wart or
    mole that i saw, do you think is it required to goto a specialist just to check if i have genital
    warts?
4. Could it be possible for an STD specialist to figure out if i carry the high risk HPV strain, just
so that i dont pass this high rish cancer causing virus to my future life partner?
5. Will an STD specialist be able to determine what would be my clearance rate if i am diagonised
with HPV
6. Should i call of my marriage plans if in future i am diagonised with HPV?

Appreciate if u could clear my doubts

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

From your description I doubt you have (or ever had) genital warts.  Since you are sexually active and have had at least a few different sex partners, the odds are strong you have been infected with HPV, which is a normal event in all sexually active people; most of us probably have several HPV infections during our sexually active lives.  Genital warts don't look the same as pimples, moles, or other bumps and uncommonly involve the scrotum or buttocks; any GP or other provider can easily tell the difference (certainly much better than a distant online forum moderator can tell).

To your questions:

1) HPV is not reportable to health authorities.  But it wouldn't matter if it were; people's identity almost never leaks out from reporting databases, whether for STDs, HIV, hepatitis, or other reportable conditions.  It shouldn't be an issue.

2) I see no reason to see another provider.  If your GP didn't see anything abnormal, you can be sure you didn't have warts or any other skin condition of importance.

4,5) There is no point in seeing an STD specialist.  There is no way to test men to see if they have high risk HPV anyway.  Even if you have had a high risk type -- which certainly is possible -- such infections go away by themselves, usually without ever causing any serious problem.

6) Call off marriage plans???  For HPV???  Of course not.  When 80% of the population gets HPV somewhere along the line, and with 25-30% of all sexually active people in their twenties carrying the virus, probably both you and your someday wife are going to go into your marriage with past HPV infection.  That's the way it is with everybody.

Sounds like you need to get some basic education about HPV.  Please do some serious reading before coming back with additional questions here.  Some good starting points are www.cdc.gov/std, www.ashastd.org, www.westoverheights.com, and www.metrokc.gov/health/apu/std.

Good luck--  HHH, MD

[joestrauss]

Thnks for your advice doc,
   I am reading literature on HPV on these websites, some websites specify that
   diseases like Molluscum contagiosum, Herpes Simplex and HPV can be transmitted
   by skin to skin contact which necessarily does not involve sex.

  If  a person goes to a strip club and has  lap dances with her (ofcourse he does not have any kind of sexual activity with her, cuz most strip clubs dont allow that), but
they do huggging and sometimes even stroking their breasts, would these activies
cause the transmission of HSV1 or molluscum?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Such transmission may be theoretically possible, but for practical purposes does not occur.  In 30+ years in the STD business, not once have I seen a case of genital herpes or HPV in a person who did not have sex, i.e. genital-genital, genital-anal, or genital-oral contact.  Genital area MCV can be nonsexually acquired, but such cases virtually always occur due to contact with a young child, not hand-genital contact.

You came here for reassurance and I gave it.  Accept it and move on.  Stop trying to talk me, and yourself, into believing you were at risk. You were not.  Let it go.  I won't have any further commetns.

[joestrauss]

Thank you doc, i have got the words of wisdom i wanted.God bless.