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Does HPV go away eventually?
Hello,
I am a 23yr old fairly healthy female adult who was recently diagnosed with a strain of HPV, however, there are a few topics that have me very, very confused.
1. When my gyno told me that my condition looks like HPV, he said verbatim: This is not for life, the virus usually diminishes with a healthy immune system within a number of years. He said it is not like herpes which recedes into the spine and then resurfaces forever. BUT I later called his assistant a day later with questions, and she told me the virus is 'for life' but the breakouts will diminish over time. This makes for a very confusing situation, considering I also find an equal amount of both pieces of info online etc.
2. I believe the strain of HPV that I have contracted is considered 'low-risk.' It surfaces below my vaginal opening as little, painless white headed bumps that literally fall off and disappear within 1-5 days. This has only surfaced twice in my lifetime in a 1yr time period, and I am in a monogamous, healthy relationship of 4 1/2 years. What types of warts show up one day and disappear the next? Why do I not need to have any treatments for them?
3. My third question is this: If for some miraculous reason my immune system DOES rid my body of the virus, my significant other has it also. Are we going to ping-pong it back and fourth to eachother, or will we somehow have some kind of 'immunity' to the specific strain we have?
Thank you so much for hearing me out. Getting these questions answered are a high priority for my state of well-being at the moment.
I am a 23yr old fairly healthy female adult who was recently diagnosed with a strain of HPV, however, there are a few topics that have me very, very confused.
1. When my gyno told me that my condition looks like HPV, he said verbatim: This is not for life, the virus usually diminishes with a healthy immune system within a number of years. He said it is not like herpes which recedes into the spine and then resurfaces forever. BUT I later called his assistant a day later with questions, and she told me the virus is 'for life' but the breakouts will diminish over time. This makes for a very confusing situation, considering I also find an equal amount of both pieces of info online etc.
2. I believe the strain of HPV that I have contracted is considered 'low-risk.' It surfaces below my vaginal opening as little, painless white headed bumps that literally fall off and disappear within 1-5 days. This has only surfaced twice in my lifetime in a 1yr time period, and I am in a monogamous, healthy relationship of 4 1/2 years. What types of warts show up one day and disappear the next? Why do I not need to have any treatments for them?
3. My third question is this: If for some miraculous reason my immune system DOES rid my body of the virus, my significant other has it also. Are we going to ping-pong it back and fourth to eachother, or will we somehow have some kind of 'immunity' to the specific strain we have?
Thank you so much for hearing me out. Getting these questions answered are a high priority for my state of well-being at the moment.
I agree a lot of the information is contradictory online, I was recently diagnosed with Hpv as well. And I think I might be making myself go crazy by trying to dig. I have a follow up appointment on thursday for a cervix examination (coloscopy) I am going to ask as many questions as I can but I am still in disbelief so it will be difficult. But ask a medical professional, a OBGYN doctor
"Keep yourself healthy" - what does that mean? I have just found out I have HPV, and I'm not sure what to think. My doctor ordered a test and I'm glad she did, but I don't know much about it. But everything I'm reading online is confusing and contradictory.
So my questions are- how do I keep myself "healthy"? What can it do besides give me cancer or genital warts (neither of which I seem to have so far)?
Thanks you for your info.
- Confused and Concerned
So my questions are- how do I keep myself "healthy"? What can it do besides give me cancer or genital warts (neither of which I seem to have so far)?
Thanks you for your info.
- Confused and Concerned
Recently, I was diagnosed with HPV as well and immediately did some digging because I'd had the vaccinations & really knew very little about this virus and found a lot of information that said it 'goes away' so I had got my hopes up a little.
HPV DOES NOT GO AWAY. It is a virus & it stays in your system forever, regardless of what anyone says.
HOWEVER, HPV comes & goes. It lies dormant (which many think means it 'goes away') and it practically does, especially for women who keep themselves healthy. It can lie dormant for a long time & never come back up. So as long as you keep yourself healthy, you really don't have much to worry about. But don't think it's just completely 'gone' because it can come back, this is why your yearly paps are very important, because it can find if the HPV has shown up again and can prevent it from getting to progressed stages of cancer.
Don't let this freak you out, I just wanted you to know the information - just like I wished I had known. So just keep yourself healthy and you shouldn't have many problems with it!
HPV DOES NOT GO AWAY. It is a virus & it stays in your system forever, regardless of what anyone says.
HOWEVER, HPV comes & goes. It lies dormant (which many think means it 'goes away') and it practically does, especially for women who keep themselves healthy. It can lie dormant for a long time & never come back up. So as long as you keep yourself healthy, you really don't have much to worry about. But don't think it's just completely 'gone' because it can come back, this is why your yearly paps are very important, because it can find if the HPV has shown up again and can prevent it from getting to progressed stages of cancer.
Don't let this freak you out, I just wanted you to know the information - just like I wished I had known. So just keep yourself healthy and you shouldn't have many problems with it!
Welcome to the STD forum.
Questions and concerns about HPV are among the most common and confusing dilemmas in the STD field these days. Here are some salient facts pertinent to your situation:
Everybody gets genital HPV (at least 80% of all sexually active people) and most of us probably have several infections during our sexually active years. Having genital HPV should be viewed as a normal and expected fact of human sexuality. The high risk (cancer causing) HPV types are the most common of all infections. Still, the large majority of infections clear up without ever causing symptoms or disease. Your wife's infection may have been present for years before her pap became abnormal. You were obviously exposed to her infection, maybe even the source of it (you're never going to know); but if you had been infected with the same type previously, you probably are immune and didn't get infected. Or you did get infected and it will never cause a problem, and either has gone away or will soon. This, too, you will never know. Most HPV infections clear up, without ever causing symptoms, within 2 years, often faster.
Future sex partners are at no more risk for HPV because of your history than if you never had it, and at no more risk if your wife's pap smear had never been abnormal. Those potential partners, just like any other sexually active person, might have already been infected; and if not and they catch HPV, most likely they won't know it, and if they happen to be among the unlucky minority who get an abnormal pap smear, they will never be able to know (and neither will you) whether it came from you or someone else.
In other words, there isn't much to be done. HPV, including infection with high risk types, is unavoidable for practical purposes, except through immunization (more on which below). It is for this reason that CDC does not recommend that partners of women with abnormal paps be referred to health care for evaluation. In fact, CDC specifically says that should not be done, because there are no useful diagnostic tests and nothing to be done to prevent future problems, prevention, etc.
For these reasons, most experts agree you are under no ethical obligation to mention your wife's abnormal pap or HPV to your future sex partner(s). If you do so, it should not be for reasons of disease prevention, but perhaps only in the interest of an open and honest relationship.
As for your family history and your health, there are no worries here either. To my knowledge, ghere is no evidence of any genetic predisposition to HPV-related cancers. Second, penile and other genital area cancers are extremely rare in men, even those who have had HPV. And although penile cancer sounds frightening, it is a very slowly progressive problem. Medical care if and when penile skin lesions appear is always easily curative, if cancer is the cause, without drastic measures (like penile amputation).
Finally, all sexually active people under age 26 (and perhaps older -- the jury is still out) ought to be immunized against HPV, preferably with Gardasil -- one of 2 HPV vaccines on the market, but the only one that covers not only the 2 HPV types most likely to cause cervical cancer and precancerous pap abnormalities, but also the 2 types that cause most genital warts. If your future partner(s) have been vaccinated, most likely they will be protected against the type that you may or may not be carrying.
Here are three other threads that discuss some of these issues in still more detail. Please take a look at them.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/STDs/concerned/show/980849
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/STDs/HPV-Transmission/show/761416
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/STDs/HPV--Informing-past-partners/show/763292
http://www.medhelp.org/forums/STDs/show/116
copy the link, or click on the forum, select the doctor's forum since STD's, where you can ask questions of doctors who worked on this for over 40 years, since it costs a little money or search for HPV or else you're interested in and see what answers others have received
copy the link, or click on the forum, select the doctor's forum since STD's, where you can ask questions of doctors who worked on this for over 40 years, since it costs a little money or search for HPV or else you're interested in and see what answers others have received
Thank you, I now understand what you are trying to say. How do I get to the 'medical community' forums you are speaking of?
The fact that there is so much contradicting information out there makes this situation very difficult for me to understand and cope with. Like I said, I had two medical professionals that work together in gynecology give me two separate stories. This is frustrating because, for how much misinformation there is out there, it's not surprising to me that so many people are uneducated about sexually transmitted issues.
I was also under the impression that HPV can manifest as a breakout in various different ways due to the fact that there are many, many different strains of it. In my case, they show up as what look like 1-3 raised, semi-firm canker sores. They are completely painless and literally fall or wipe off in a matter of 1-4 days. When this happens, I'm left with distinct crater-like marks, similar to an enlarged pore that disappears in another day or two. They don't ooze any fluid or even seem very red or irritated and, once again, are completely painless. I was also blood tested for HSV1 and 2.
The doctor said it was basically unnecessary to test for anything because he was so sure it was HPV. My boyfriend has no symptoms, nor has he ever had any previously.
I absolutely do not believe in the towel transmission hokey-pokey. Even if it is possible, the chances seem ridiculously slim.
The fact that there is so much contradicting information out there makes this situation very difficult for me to understand and cope with. Like I said, I had two medical professionals that work together in gynecology give me two separate stories. This is frustrating because, for how much misinformation there is out there, it's not surprising to me that so many people are uneducated about sexually transmitted issues.
I was also under the impression that HPV can manifest as a breakout in various different ways due to the fact that there are many, many different strains of it. In my case, they show up as what look like 1-3 raised, semi-firm canker sores. They are completely painless and literally fall or wipe off in a matter of 1-4 days. When this happens, I'm left with distinct crater-like marks, similar to an enlarged pore that disappears in another day or two. They don't ooze any fluid or even seem very red or irritated and, once again, are completely painless. I was also blood tested for HSV1 and 2.
The doctor said it was basically unnecessary to test for anything because he was so sure it was HPV. My boyfriend has no symptoms, nor has he ever had any previously.
I absolutely do not believe in the towel transmission hokey-pokey. Even if it is possible, the chances seem ridiculously slim.
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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.
