new

[alexandrialauren]

im 18 years old and just was told i have HPV. i feel very scared and alone cause none of my friends have it. im worried that it looks degrading on my part. i have a boyfriend who i am absolutly in love with and he told me everything would be alright so im glad i have his support. they told me i was high and low risk, because my cells were abnormal. without doing that scraping procedure (im not sure of the name) would that pap itself tell me if it was warts or not? i mean i would think the doctor could have seen them during the pap. please someone help me. im scared out of my mind. im too the point where i actually threw up tonight because im so scared. i dont want to tell my mom because im scared she will disown me and think im trashy. i want her to trust me and be able to let me see my boyfriend. someone help me pleaseee!!

[Meliii]

Well same thing happened with me i went for my pap smear and the results came back abnormal, so i had the colioscopy done i think thats what its called where they scrape parts of ur cervix and it was painful! well the my dr. said i had mild dysplasia and i did test for hpv and it came back positive.. i wasnt really worried because the dr. didnt really give me alot of feed back on it and just casually said u tested positive for Hpv..he said it very casually like nothing bad. and i guess i have to go every 6mnths to get chkd and i went in like in oct. and my dr told me everything came back normal!! so iam like WTH??!! so i wasnt worried untill now that i noticed this little skin like bump that wont go away....iam scared. i also have been really really stressing out and worried about all this!!

[faceless998]

hey all
i'm glad im not alone in this. i was diagnosed today with warts. There is alot of false info out on the web but here is what my doc told me

-genital warts is not a lifetime condition.  Eventually the body rids you of it. however there are no blood tests or anything to know when you are clear.
-the reason they dont always take off the warts is to give your body a chance to fight it on its own.  also these procedures of removing them can cause scars.
-new studies have come out suggesting the folic acid may help your body rid you of the hpv virus.  my doctor is having me take 800mcg of folic acid a day.
-lastly, it is extremely common..more than half of the population has this, just symptoms dont seem to show up in males as much as it does in females (or maybe we just go to the doc more)

so my advice to everyone is just to stay strong in this. none of us wanted this, but all we can do about it now is deal with it. at least it isnt a lifetime condition.

[roses711]

To Virussuck: Your body CAN"T wipe the HPV virus (ANY STRAIN) COMPLETELY out of your system and give you lifelong immunity! The virus CAN be "suppressed" (also known as cleared) which will make it undetectable/dormant/ unable to be transmitted..HOWEVER it can always resurface under stress, bad health, weakened immune system. THERE IS NO CURE!! Certain medications can help in reducing/relieving the visible symptoms (warts) of certain strains.

HPV ISN"T spread from coughing, sneezing, shaking hands,touching dirty surfaces..IT'S SPREAD THRU SKIN TO SKIN SEXUAL CONTACT..you're giving false info

To Turkee23:  I think the confusion is as follows..If a woman has a normal PAP doctors don't administer the HPV test since it's assumed that it's soo common in younger women and that their bodies will fight it off successfully. A HPV test is only done on women under 30 if the PAP comes back abnormal. On women OVER 30 or 35 (depends on the office) a HPV test is done in conjunction w/ a PAP as part of their reg exam (hence some older women having a normal PAP but recieving a positive HPV test..happened to me @ my visit and I"m 36)

[anastasianoelle]

Hi there, i just wanted to say that i know how you feel i am hpv positive and i don't even know if its both high and low risk because i have genital warts and moderate dysplasia and i am nineteen yrs old i have to get a cone biopsy done in a week with a laser and i am super scared. my doc is not very understanding he still wont do anything about the warts.......which is the worst part..and he told me that with the cone biopsy there is a slim to no chance of me being able to have children :-( i trst him though cuz he is the best doc around...its ok though most of us hpv positive people feel the same way.

[turkee23]

i dont know why people are telling others that the dont test for HPV unless you are 30 years old ...THATS NOT TRUE ....as long as you get an abnormal pap back then they will test you for HPV.....

i am 24 and i have moderate HPV... i have abnormal cells and coloskpy done and am going back to do a cone biopsy soon.....HPv can stay with you for a very long time and yes they will test for it at a younger age, yes 80% of women have it or will have by the time they are 30 years old.....

if you smoke you need to stop as that makes the HPV worse...HPV can lay dormant for 10 years and never show up, or  you can get an abnormal pap smear and then your next one can be "normal" because your body "clears" the infection.....

any questions please feel free to ask me anything,... i will help with any ?'s

[jess695]

hey, im 18 years old and i found out a few months ago that i have HPV. I have the type that causes cervical cancer. believe me i know exactly what your going through. It sucks but i'm doing fine. there isn't anything you can change about it and yeah its reallyyy hard when it comes to meeting someone new and having to tell them but they don't act the way that you would think. Its very common and as long as you sit them down and explain it to them carefully, then everything will be cool. Now as far as telling your parents, well i'm still stuck in the same situation. I've gone through the biopsy and checking the cells, its not a comfortable situation but it has to be done and since you are 18 then you can do it by yourself. i wouldn't tell her till you know which oneyou have and you can sit your parents down and explain everything to them. I havent spoken to mine yet and i've known about it for abut 4 months now. I go back next month for another check up and they tell me if my cells have changed and if this medicine worked. Keep in mind, its not like the other STD viruses that once you have it then your stuck with it. it CAN go away. you just need to eat plenty of vegitables and fruits, do anything to build your immune system so your body can fight it off.

[jujubean616]

I am 19, i found out i had hpv in January. when i first found out i was absolutely devastated. but after tons of research on the subject i have become more informed and less freaked out.  I went back in July for a follow up pap, where my dr told me i still had hpv, so she brought me back for a biopsy, she took two biopsys, which hurt very bad, only for a couple days though. the biopsys werent precancerous. i have found that knowing and being informed is the most comforting part of a scary situation.

[Sweets9790]

i feel ur plain goin thru the same ish rite now im 18 to found out i had genital warts in march god i felt all alone told my best friend she was the only 1 who new.....the 3 weeks ago i take a pap and my ish had abnormal cells im like god wat else, so i did a cro , froze abnormal cells....ur lucky u got a bf u dont have to tell a guy who u like that mite like u that u have gw its not fun and no1 stuck around :( . u dont ahve to tell ur mother i didnt cus god she'll kill me shes a nurse and she always gives me thtat safe sex talk.....just take sum towels and label them as urself and get ur own soap .......all i can say is ur gonna be just fine i was all cryin and ish when i found out...but its not the end of the world. so just breath and keep tellin urself i cud of got sumthing worst and died from it....its been six months for my no1 in my fam knows, but if ur home crying and throwin up sum1 is gonna start askin question just keep ur cool, ur boyfriends got ur bac atleast u got that so keep ur head up...if u wanna talk more u can hit me up

[virusessuck]

aldara = the solution.  use as directed.  hpv can go away PROVIDED THAT you abstain from all sexual encounters, kissing, smoking after people, drinking after people etc. AVOID ALL CONTACT WITH ANYTHING THAT CAN MAKE YOU SICK (saliva, coughs, sneezes, touching wet moist surfaces that sick people have been around and then touching your nose/eyes/mouth.)  WASH YOUR HANDS.  Your immune system can fight the HPV off.  DO NOT FREEZE THE WARTS/BURN THEM OFF/SURGICALLY REMOVE THEM.  YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM MUST RECOGNIZE AND NAIL THE VIRUS WITH THE Tc Cells.  ALDARA IS THE ONLY WAY TO DO THIS.  Your body is not able to handle the HPV infection on its own.  Aldara will jump start and slam the HPV hard as **** to the point where it probably will wipe the virus out of your body completely, leaving you with LIFE-LONG Immunity to that strain!! =-)  There is hope.

[bewilderwhelmed]

I think you got your phrasing wrong.

"High risk" is usually a phrase to describe a kind of HPV.  I.e., you have high risk HPV, which means it is the kind that COULD cause cervical cancer (which it usually doesn't, but get regular check ups anyway).  So, "you have high risk HPV," not "you are high risk for HPV."

So, yes.  You have HPV.  That's where the inflammation on the tests was from.  It's probably dormant now, so you don't need to worry too much, but tell your partners and use protection.

[bewilderwhelmed]

A correction that could've scared the poor girl silly:
You said that dysplasia (abnormal cells on the cervix, discovered on the pap test) could ONLY be caused by high risk HPV.

Nope.

"Both high-risk and low-risk types of HPV can cause the growth of abnormal cells, but only the high-risk types of HPV lead to cancer."

From http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/risk/HPV

Abnormal cells do NOT equal cancerous cells.

[quttiepie1]

hello im 25 and i was told i was high risk for HPV at the age of 24 and i was very scared. my doctor told me i was high risk for HPV what does that mean?  and i was sent to have a biopsy done to see if i had pre-cancerous cells.  and it came back negative. and all she said was it must be  inflammation from the warts virus.what does that mean?  and she did nothing. she said it would go away on it on. and to come back in six months to get another pep. i went back and every thing was fine. and again i went back for another six months and nothing showed up. after a year had gone by I had moved so i switch doctors and had told the doctor about me being high risk HPV and she side she would check for HPV and if i dont here from her then im good,but if here from her then thats bad news. well weeks went by and i heard nothing and then months went by and i heard nothing. so my questions is did I have HPV or what????? a

[alexandrialauren]

thank you so much

[simplynat]

Did your doctor run an HPV test with your pap? Most doctors will not test for HPV until a women is 30 or older because younger women are almost guaranteed to test positive for it. If you have dysplasia (diagnosed through a colposcopy) then we know for sure you have at least high risk HPV. It is common to have more than one strain of the virus and it is possible you have low risk HPV (wart causing strain) as well. Not all genital warts are visible, so it would be hard to know for sure unless you tested positive on an HPV test or if there were visible lesions.
I just sent this information to someone else and I thought maybe you could benefit from this.
First, you should know that HPV is extremely common, 80% of men and women will have an active infection by the time they are 50, it is more 'normal' to have it than not to have it. However, most people will never have any idea they have had an infection because the majority of the population are able to clear any strains of the virus without developing any symptoms or ill effects. It's also important to know that there isn't any HPV test (FDA approved) for men, only women so we never know when we are in contact with someone who has the virus.
- HPV is the causitive factor for 99.8% of ALL cervical cancers. (Squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma being the two most common types.) There are over 100 strains of HPV and of those, over 30 are genital HPV. But having HPV (or even dysplasia) does not mean you will develop cancer. Having high risk HPV only puts you at risk (and a small one at that).
- HPV can be transmitted even with the use of condoms. (Which are only effective 70% of the time.) It can be transmitted through skin to skin contact, so it is feasibly possible to contract HPV without having actual intercourse but simple genital contact. You do not need to be promiscous to contract this virus. It is so common, it only takes one person, one person who has been exposed prior to you. One.
- There isn't any cure or treatment for HPV. There are treatments available for the effects of HPV (warts/dysplasia) but not the virus itself. HPV is fought by the immune system and can lay dormant for years (over 20 even) before becoming active. Stress, pregnancy, ill health can all create an environment for HPV to become active and dysplasias to thrive due to an immune system that is lowered.
Just because a woman does not test positive for HPV does not mean she doesn't have it. The Digene test (the only FDA approved HPV test) can only detect whether there is an active HPV infection (if the virus is dormant at the time of testing it cannot detect it) and if there is an active infection, whether the strain(s) are of the high risk category or low risk (warts) category. Many women think they don't have HPV because they don't have any visible symptoms or because the HPV test did not detect anything but those are not valid indications that a person is HPV free. It is almost impossible to know who does NOT have HPV.
There is conflicting research as to whether or not a person can clear and be rid of HPV forever or whether the infection is cleared and just remains dormant. I personally strongly believe that HPV does not ever completely leave the body but rather goes into a state of dormancy which may or may not become active again at a later date (due to my own personal experience and other women I have met). The good news is that there are measures a person can take to try and clear an active HPV infection, which involve living a healthy lifestyle. Exercise, minimal stress, no smoking (!), adequate rest, healthy eating with plenty of good for you veggies (DIM which is found in cruciferous vegetable like kale, brocolli, bok choy has been linked to helping clear an active HPV infection. Check out dimfaq.com) nothing irritating in the vagina until the infection has cleared (no tampons, douching, etc.) using condoms even if you are in a monagmous relationship as there is research that links viral loads and the body's inability to clear an active HPV infection. Best wishes to you!