Aa
Possible HPV transmission?
I am a heterosexual male who was in a relationship earlier this year. We had sex 15 to 20 times over a span of 3 months, from early January to early April. The first two times we had sex with a condom. I asked her if I had anything to worry about. She said NO, and that she was on the pill. We got comfortable, and started off having sex without a condom, then about half way through I'd put one on.
We broke up in April and two months after my last sexual contact with her every STD test I could be tested for was negative, but no HPV test for men. I contacted my ex and asked her explicitly if she had HPV. She said that two years ago she tested positive for HPV, but never had any symptoms. She said she has at least one of the strains that causes varying degrees of cervical dysphasia that could potentially lead to cervical cancer. She didn't recall being tested since two years ago. She is 29 now and in January started seeing a new doctor. She said that her HPV test came back negative in January, positive in April, and her biopsy in June didn't show any signs of cancer.
What are the chances that my ex gave HPV to me? I have never displayed any symptoms. Should I be worried about giving it to my new girlfriend and is this something I need to talk to her about? If I did catch something, is it possible that my immune system will fight it off? How long does that usually take? I work out, don
We broke up in April and two months after my last sexual contact with her every STD test I could be tested for was negative, but no HPV test for men. I contacted my ex and asked her explicitly if she had HPV. She said that two years ago she tested positive for HPV, but never had any symptoms. She said she has at least one of the strains that causes varying degrees of cervical dysphasia that could potentially lead to cervical cancer. She didn't recall being tested since two years ago. She is 29 now and in January started seeing a new doctor. She said that her HPV test came back negative in January, positive in April, and her biopsy in June didn't show any signs of cancer.
What are the chances that my ex gave HPV to me? I have never displayed any symptoms. Should I be worried about giving it to my new girlfriend and is this something I need to talk to her about? If I did catch something, is it possible that my immune system will fight it off? How long does that usually take? I work out, don
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Congratulations to your ex-partner. She behaved exactly as I counsel people, both in the STD clinic and on this forum: once an HPV infection has apparently cleared up (warts gone, abnormal pap cleared up), and a few months go by without recurrence, there is no need to inform future partners of the infection.
Unless she is your only lifetime partner, you should assume you already have been infected with HIV and will be infected again. Your question suggests that you (and perhaps your ex) assume that her newly positive HPV test is a recurrence of her previous infection. In fact, it is equally likely that it is a new infection--from you. Most people acquire HPV within their first 3-4 lifetime sex partners and 80-90% of us eventually become infected. Getting genital HPV is a normal, expected outcome of normal sexual behavior--essentially unavoidable. Most HPV infections are asymptomatic and never picked up on pap smears; so a partner who says she never had HPV is no safer as a sex partner than one who happened to have had a diagnosis.
So the bottom line is that it is likely your ex are sharing an HPV infection, that is you might have been infected. But it isn't certain; and if you have HPV, it is equally likely that you were infected first and transmitted to her, or that her prior infection recurred and you were exposed to that. Either way, you can expect to remain asymptomatic, and although you conceivably could be infectious for other partners at this time, by now your immune system might have eradicated it. There is no available test to know, and no treatment to give.
The rate of spontaneous resolution of HPV has been studied only for cervical infection in women. The average time is several months, but sometimes it takes a couple of years--longer for the highest risk types, such as HPV 16/18, shorter for other HPV types. It probably is the same for asymptomatic infection in men, but we don't know for sure. The 'strength' of one's immune system makes no difference.
For all these reasons, I believe you have no obligation to discuss this with future partners. The bottom line is that informing or not informing partners of HPV probably makes little or no difference, in the long run, that someone will acquire HPV or transmit it to others. This is why the new HPV vaccine is such an important development: no other prevention strategy is likely to work.
But one final comment: While you might not have a definitive ethical obligation to discuss this with future partners, your experience also shows it might be a good idea, from the standpoint of relationship development. You obviously were bummed out by your partner's failure to tell you about her HPV infection. While I believe she had no obligation to do that, perhaps it still would have been a good idea. The same might apply to you in future couplings, but that's a personal/relationship issue, not a medical one.
I understand that this all remains pretty 'soft'. There simply are no hard answers. But I hope this helps you put HPV into perspective.
Good luck-- HHH, MD
Unless she is your only lifetime partner, you should assume you already have been infected with HIV and will be infected again. Your question suggests that you (and perhaps your ex) assume that her newly positive HPV test is a recurrence of her previous infection. In fact, it is equally likely that it is a new infection--from you. Most people acquire HPV within their first 3-4 lifetime sex partners and 80-90% of us eventually become infected. Getting genital HPV is a normal, expected outcome of normal sexual behavior--essentially unavoidable. Most HPV infections are asymptomatic and never picked up on pap smears; so a partner who says she never had HPV is no safer as a sex partner than one who happened to have had a diagnosis.
So the bottom line is that it is likely your ex are sharing an HPV infection, that is you might have been infected. But it isn't certain; and if you have HPV, it is equally likely that you were infected first and transmitted to her, or that her prior infection recurred and you were exposed to that. Either way, you can expect to remain asymptomatic, and although you conceivably could be infectious for other partners at this time, by now your immune system might have eradicated it. There is no available test to know, and no treatment to give.
The rate of spontaneous resolution of HPV has been studied only for cervical infection in women. The average time is several months, but sometimes it takes a couple of years--longer for the highest risk types, such as HPV 16/18, shorter for other HPV types. It probably is the same for asymptomatic infection in men, but we don't know for sure. The 'strength' of one's immune system makes no difference.
For all these reasons, I believe you have no obligation to discuss this with future partners. The bottom line is that informing or not informing partners of HPV probably makes little or no difference, in the long run, that someone will acquire HPV or transmit it to others. This is why the new HPV vaccine is such an important development: no other prevention strategy is likely to work.
But one final comment: While you might not have a definitive ethical obligation to discuss this with future partners, your experience also shows it might be a good idea, from the standpoint of relationship development. You obviously were bummed out by your partner's failure to tell you about her HPV infection. While I believe she had no obligation to do that, perhaps it still would have been a good idea. The same might apply to you in future couplings, but that's a personal/relationship issue, not a medical one.
I understand that this all remains pretty 'soft'. There simply are no hard answers. But I hope this helps you put HPV into perspective.
Good luck-- HHH, MD
I am sure the doctor meant HPV and not HIV in the begining there!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Indeed, paragraph 2, sentence 1 should say HPV, not HIV. Thanks for picking up the typo.
You are reading content posted in the STDs Forum
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Millions of people are diagnosed with STDs in the U.S. each year.
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
