Doctor,
I have HPV that has manifested itself in actual warts. I have treated them several times over about ten years (perhaps never consistently enough), but they always come back. Until very recently, I have always disclosed the condition to sexual partners before engaging in intercourse. Three nights ago, however, I met a girl and we became EXTREMELY intoxicated and had sex. I did not disclose my STD to her beforehand. The girl (who is a friend of a friend) flew out the next morning, and it is not very likely that we will be seeing one another again.
Doc, should I track down the girl to disclose the fact that I have HPV?
To my belief, there are few elements at play here: First, according to a lot of the literature I've read, many, many sexually active people are exposed to HPV. One line of thinking weighs in favor of not contacting the girl, because why needlessly worry her if she did not contract the virus? The best thing that could happen in that scenario is that she worry about it and never test positive for HPV. On the other hand, if I do contact her, just having information about the risk would clearly allow her to (1) get screened sooner than her next annual and treat any symptoms that may arise, and (2) disclose the risk to her future sexual partners.
Interestingly, I find that the law creates the wrong incentives in my scenario, i.e. it encourages non-disclosure, because if I now disclose my condition post-hoc, the girl contracts HPV, and she is angry and decides to take legal action, she will actually know who to direct a law suit against. Whereas if I say nothing, she clearly would not know who was responsible for passing HPV to her (assuming that I was not her first drunken one-night-stand). All in all, I want to do what is right, so I am not really concerned with legal ramifications at this point, just wanted to make the observation.
While my concern is directed toward the girl, I realize that I engaged in very risky, maybe even reckless behavior, and that I am at risk too. Thank goodness I have been able to avoid that for the most part over the past ten years, but I hope this forum serves as a good learning tool--that people can read about this mistake on my part and learn from it. Thanks for your input, Doc!
This discussion is related to
Handsfield 6 month disclosure guidelines.