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just diagnosed... what should I do?
I was just told that I had my first abnormal pap... my reading of HPV/LSIL/CIN 1 confirmed that I know when and who gave this to me. He is uncircumcised and gave me a bacterial infection which is why I went in. I am so angry right now... with myself and my instinct that I should not have had sex with this man, but I did anyway. I had just gotten out of a nasty divorce and was extremely lonely and stupid. I haven't spoken to him in quite a while, but I just want to tell him and be angry with him. I know it is no use though. What is worse is I have now infected a guy friend of mine that I started seeing about 6 months ago and I don't know what to do about that either. I don't think he will be there for me and I know he will be angry and never speak to me again... How and should I tell him? I was just getting my life on track and now...?
I was told it may go away on its own. Is this real common? I have my biopsy scheduled for next Wednesday. Will it hurt? What is the percent likelihood that it will lead to cervical cancer eventually? Is there any possibility that any other cancers will be more likely because of this? Anal, ovarian, uterus, abdominal and I am sure there are tons of others I am not thinking of?
Also, I've taken birth control since I was 16, so almost 12 years now. I did have an IUD when I was married for about 3 years, so I guess that takes it down to 9 years. I understand this can put me at even higher risk for cervical cancer with HPV, so should I get off of it? I dislike it anyway....
I've been reading on supplements... folic acid, shark cartilage, minerals and vitamins C and E... do you have any suggestions? I have been taking Juice Plus, a food based multi, magnesium/cal, and a couple of other things for quite a while, eat an almost 100% organic diet (I do eat meat, but am trying to cut back on red meat and other highly fatty meats), exercise 3-5 days/week and don't smoke. I'm 150, 5'6", 27 and generally do not get sick. Is there anything else I can do? I'll eat an all raw diet if that will work!
I do drink alcohol... sometimes too much when I'm all stressed. Should I quit all together? Normally I probably have 6-12 drinks a week, but sometimes more. Mostly wine. I started having less since I found out.
Thanks for the outlet.
I was told it may go away on its own. Is this real common? I have my biopsy scheduled for next Wednesday. Will it hurt? What is the percent likelihood that it will lead to cervical cancer eventually? Is there any possibility that any other cancers will be more likely because of this? Anal, ovarian, uterus, abdominal and I am sure there are tons of others I am not thinking of?
Also, I've taken birth control since I was 16, so almost 12 years now. I did have an IUD when I was married for about 3 years, so I guess that takes it down to 9 years. I understand this can put me at even higher risk for cervical cancer with HPV, so should I get off of it? I dislike it anyway....
I've been reading on supplements... folic acid, shark cartilage, minerals and vitamins C and E... do you have any suggestions? I have been taking Juice Plus, a food based multi, magnesium/cal, and a couple of other things for quite a while, eat an almost 100% organic diet (I do eat meat, but am trying to cut back on red meat and other highly fatty meats), exercise 3-5 days/week and don't smoke. I'm 150, 5'6", 27 and generally do not get sick. Is there anything else I can do? I'll eat an all raw diet if that will work!
I do drink alcohol... sometimes too much when I'm all stressed. Should I quit all together? Normally I probably have 6-12 drinks a week, but sometimes more. Mostly wine. I started having less since I found out.
Thanks for the outlet.
Personally, if I were infected with high risk HPV I wouldn't be all that concerned. As long as you're keeping up with your exams, and taking relatively good care of yourself, you have nothing to worry about. Rarely does HPV lead to life threatening circumstances. Seeing as there is no test for HPV for men, the person who gave this to you had absolutely no way of knowing he had it. Anger towards him for high risk is pointless. And as far as infecting someone else goes, high risk HPV will probably cause him absolutely no problems. Most people have high risk HPV, actually.
Your immune system will eventually suppress the virus, making it virtually impossible to transmit. Usually this is occurs within 6-24 months (unfortunately low risk HPV clears more readily than high risk HPV). After a year 70% of women will no longer have HPV, after two years 90% of women will have beaten the virus. Only 10% of people have prolonged trouble with it, the odds are in your favor considering that you're young and healthy. As far as the drinking goes, I'd cut down a bit just for other reasons, 12+ drinks a week is a tad excessive and not good for other systems of your body.
I would read the information provided by doctors through the expert forums, info from the American Social Health Association (http://www.ashastd.org/hpv/hpv_overview.cfm), and information from the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/STD/HPV/). These are some of the most credible sources available online. Be weary of other sites claiming to give you accurate information, there is a lot of misinformation and moral propaganda on the web about HPV. Please ignore sites such as Yahoo Answers, and HPVforum when it comes to this. While there is some accurate information there, the inaccuracies outweigh the truth.
Your immune system will eventually suppress the virus, making it virtually impossible to transmit. Usually this is occurs within 6-24 months (unfortunately low risk HPV clears more readily than high risk HPV). After a year 70% of women will no longer have HPV, after two years 90% of women will have beaten the virus. Only 10% of people have prolonged trouble with it, the odds are in your favor considering that you're young and healthy. As far as the drinking goes, I'd cut down a bit just for other reasons, 12+ drinks a week is a tad excessive and not good for other systems of your body.
I would read the information provided by doctors through the expert forums, info from the American Social Health Association (http://www.ashastd.org/hpv/hpv_overview.cfm), and information from the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/STD/HPV/). These are some of the most credible sources available online. Be weary of other sites claiming to give you accurate information, there is a lot of misinformation and moral propaganda on the web about HPV. Please ignore sites such as Yahoo Answers, and HPVforum when it comes to this. While there is some accurate information there, the inaccuracies outweigh the truth.
I can personally relate to ur feelings dear....i got high risk HPV after being celibate 10 years from uncircumsized male.....but i will take fault in my part for b-lieving what he told me and not using condoms.Empathy has given u some great advice here....and u need to read and educate urself on the real facts....keep up on those paps and follow what ur doc advises.
I did the same thing... believed him about being clean. Definitely my fault;(
many men are amazingly ignorant to high risk HPV..they think it 2 b a womans problem due to gardisil commercials and r more hip 2 the genital wart strain due to its obvious signs.They don't think and disbelieve the concept of high risk hpv cuz no test for them.My x had std testing...but i think lied about no sex for 3 years..plus he was a heavy smoker and that coulda suppressed his virus.I know he didn't give it to me intentionally but his reaction when told was yelling screaming and it wasn't me!It was injury upon insult to me but i have healed up over it to a big degree..got a ways 2 go...and u do 2..u will find a lot of good info here and support as I have!
I've thought this way about it too. There's so many emotions tied up with romantic relationships, that sometimes anger and blame gets misplaced. I'm not happy at all about having an STD, but I consider it more an unfortunate circumstance than his fault. I chose to have sex with him (protected, even), and sex comes with an array of emotional and physical repercussions despite whatever precautions you take. It is our job as sexually responsible adults to accept these repercussions and not misplace blame. If someone intentionally infected someone with HPV (and I mean having sex with someone while knowing they were for sure still infectious, if someone thought they were clear 6+ months later and accidentally infected someone, this is more forgivable to me- particularly considering there would probably be no way to prove if it was even the same infection), then this is a different scenario. Unfortunately there just isn't a test for men. It's something we have to accept. Ultimately, we are the only ones who are responsible for our own sexual health, no one else.
Sex involves risk, and if someone doesn't think they can handle the risk and aftermath, they shouldn't be having sex.
Sex involves risk, and if someone doesn't think they can handle the risk and aftermath, they shouldn't be having sex.
I work in substance abuse field...and we do health education.when i talk to men about HPV they have no knowledge...are sexually active with many partners and many not using condoms.They consider HPV a womens issue and seem not to want to know about HPV.I talk with many men of all ages and professions and many men in their 40's and 50's not using protection.Getting high risk HPV is not intentional on anyones part and in this day and age when u make the decision to have sex with someone it is a risk!And a choice!Our adolescent counselors who work with the teens have found high rates of chalymidia and HPV with the teen girls..again when they try to educate the males.....duh!The last newsletter from ASHA noted 1 out of 3 teenage girls has HPV!that is alarming but again i know prevalent in today's culture!And as a last note.....i was very kind and non-blaming when i told my x about the HPV....i said non-intentional on his part.....i knew this...initial apology then yelling screaming got cussed out and phone slammed down.Very immature response i know....but much food for thought regarding my health and the need to safeguard it.At one time i trusted this man with my life....and foolishly so.will never happen again!having xperience like this colors ur perception about things.......and Muscarat u r so fortunate as u say to have a man whose never lied to u and who u trust implicitly so u really have no perception as to how this would b if u were in someone elses shoes.
it is not the issue that the men don't know they have this...many don't of course.....but many when enlightened still turn a deaf ear! 2 it and say its a womens problem!i x-plained to my x what this was....he yelled some more he'd never heard of it.....but he was one not to care about his health...and the fact that he had recently relapsed with cocaine after 3 years clean and turned in2 the BIGGEST donkeys butt on the face of the earth had a bearing.it is cool that u were raised with no sex b4 marriage......i respect that... i b-lieve in monogomy/fidelity and total honesty another foreign concept for the majority it seems in 2 days culture.I do not b-lieve and will never b-lieve that HPV can be had from drinking glasses and hand towels as u have posted earlier.If ur comfortable b-lieving that then fine.many women benefit from this forum...it is so good..and i think how a woman handles her diagnosis of HPV is contingent upon the nature of the relationship she has with her partner,if she is able to trace the source of the infection.I was celibate for 10 years...i know where mine came from.but my x said/did unforgiveable things b4 my diagnosis that made his reaction really heap injury on insult....and i'm lucky i didn't end up with something worse than high risk HPV!so what r they doing with yours?watching it or will u hafta have a LEEP?
That is an incredibly ignorant and immature response on his half, and he should be embarrassed he's acting in such a fashion at his age. No past partners I contacted about this (who were all asymptomatic, btw) had that reaction, and they were all in their early 20's. But, my generation probably has been educated moreso about STD's than many prior generations. I never trusted anyone with my life or entirely with my health, so I didn't have this dilemma thankfully. But, HPV was an excruciatingly difficult thing to deal with, mainly because I was ignorant on the subject. I thought an HPV diagnosis paralleled an HSV2 diagnosis, and I thought I would have this forever, get cervical cancer and die (I didn't realize initially low risk never leads to cancer), and that I'd have a total obligation to disclose this to future partners for the rest of my life because I'd be forever infectious. I was wrong about a lot, and numerous false sources on the internet didn't help at all. Having a very understanding, knowledgeable doctor and finding credible sources like the expert forums here really helped answer a lot of questions, and put HPV diagnosis into perspective. This isn't something that has to be life altering or have such a presence in all of your future relationships for the rest of your life. Even if this infection proves to be persistent (I hope it won't!), knowing that it isn't a lifetime thing is incredibly reassuring and gives me a lot of hope for future relationships.
oh yes it was!no doubt the cocaine colored his response plus the aforementioned.Ur generation is more educated about this and more willing.Research is showing a rise in high risk HPV among women ages 40's-50's who like me unfortunately b-lieved it to be a std of ppl with many partners!how wrong i was and how wrong that is!I never trusted anyone with my health...that is my sole responsibility!Older and wiser oh yes!by the way Happy Mothers Day dear to the 4leggeds u r a guardian of!:)
HPV seems harder to deal with than other STD's because I think we, as women, and some of us, as newly divorced or newly single, don't realize it is out there and what it means. I knew about warts, but not HPV that isn't symptom visible. I'm aware of all the other STDs, but I guess I was a bit blind to the reality and prevalence of HR-HPV. Personally, it took me by complete surprise which is why I think I was so angry at the man. He also said that he, like me, had not had many partners and later started talking to me about partners (which I did not ask to hear) and I figured out on my own that he had many partners and even, I think, some that were prostitutes. I was already angry at myself for having sex with him, then all this came out and I was angry at him for lying (in my opinion) and putting me in danger. That's when I got tested... I've seen the commercials, but hadn't paid attention mostly because I was married.
What I struggle with now is how to approach new relationships. First, get healthy, yes, but then what? I really feel like waiting until marriage is the right thing because I feel like the love, respect and trust will run deeper, but nowadays men don't want to wait, right? Are there still some out there that will be loving and understanding?
With HPV, do you tell them right away or when you get serious? If your body does rid itself of it, does that mean you are no longer contagious?
What I struggle with now is how to approach new relationships. First, get healthy, yes, but then what? I really feel like waiting until marriage is the right thing because I feel like the love, respect and trust will run deeper, but nowadays men don't want to wait, right? Are there still some out there that will be loving and understanding?
With HPV, do you tell them right away or when you get serious? If your body does rid itself of it, does that mean you are no longer contagious?
Also, I've been on birth control pills for almost 10 years with a 2 year break on IUD... I understand this can enhance the potential for cervical cancer after 5 years of use... especially with HR-HPV... any thoughts? I'm considering going without BC until I've met someone I do want to get serious with, but I get such long, painful periods it's hard to stomach.
the docs here state that High risk hpv can clear the body in 6-18 months.It then goes dormant...asleep in the body......u cannot catch the same strain or give it to someone else BUT u could catch one of another 38 some genital strains of HPV and get it again on ur cervix.fun stuff eh?yikes!I think its very important for women who want to be out there dating to ask the man what std's he has had and to get testing b4 engaging in sex.My health is more important than male companionship and sex!Some think i'm nuts and thats unrealistic......some think if u use condoms its cool.....condom use prevents HPV transmission about 60-90% according to the docs in this forum.There is still that chance!I choose abstinence...i think if i meet someone honest and understanding i will know...whats meant to be will be.I've never been the kind of woman who pines cuz theres no man in my life.This last one was quite the ordeal....one i have learned a great deal from and will not repeat.If u r in ur 30's your chances of meeting a good man are out there..i sure hope so for u..but that margin decreases as u get to be in ur 40's and 50's and that is a documented fact.it used to be that the pill reduced rates of cervical cancer...that info could now b reversed with new research.I think u should be true to ur values and morals.......and be prepared to fly solo for awhile for many men want it now/fast and will go on2 the next woman who will give it to them.I hope someday u meet someone will have the same values/morals u do......quite a feat in this challenging world we live in!
in prior posts u stated ur doc told u that plus getting it from hand towels.....sorry i musta misread that!
So after 6-18 months, it goes dormant... is it just then a matter of time and immune system strength until it acts up again? And I'm assuming that if it does it will be more serious or more likely to go into cervical cancer? Do you think it is 100% likely that eventually we will have to deal with cervical cancer?
I am in the process of getting gardasil, but I already plan on abstinence. It seems that it is the best way, not only to prevent STDs, but to ensure that the relationship is founded in trust, love and respect and not emotional dependence. I can just be so stupid... or perhaps needy... looking for love and finding it "in all the wrong places" type thing. Maybe this is just a means to stop this particular suffering. I read the other day that people want to understand the nature of their suffering more than they want their suffering to cease. I think I want it to cease! Ha!
I am in the process of getting gardasil, but I already plan on abstinence. It seems that it is the best way, not only to prevent STDs, but to ensure that the relationship is founded in trust, love and respect and not emotional dependence. I can just be so stupid... or perhaps needy... looking for love and finding it "in all the wrong places" type thing. Maybe this is just a means to stop this particular suffering. I read the other day that people want to understand the nature of their suffering more than they want their suffering to cease. I think I want it to cease! Ha!
if it goes dormant..it is asleep.Not to be caught again.if it acts up again then one has caught a new strain according to the docs!it will not go in2 cervical cancer if we have our paps and keep healthy...paps ignored for a long time can go in2 cerv cancer if no prior history of hpv but cervical issues as some has posted here.it can go either way..but not 2 ignore those paps!All of us want love,companionship and sex is nice but at what cost 2 ourselves?I won't get re-involved with anyone until i know them for quite awhile....quite a long while! ur wise to follow what u know is right 4 u!
Thanks for all your info. It has been a bit overwhelming to comprehend and I think shock can make it harder. You really helped me become able to deal with this is a calm and smart manner;)
it is a lot to comprehend.......this forum reading the docs advice to others daily and www.ashastd.org are great helpers as well.and TIME is a healer in so many ways....ur very welcome!
I will certainly be aware of what's been said here... I don't share many articles of clothing, so I think that is safe, I don't use washcloths and I can't think of anything else that would transfer fluids from an infected area. I'll make double sure not to loan a bathingsuit just in case!!
I'm sorry it is a struggle in your marriage. I can't imagine the stress it would have brought into mine.
Thanks for your feedback.
I'm sorry it is a struggle in your marriage. I can't imagine the stress it would have brought into mine.
Thanks for your feedback.
so are they watching ur hpv?or do u hafta have a LEEP?
4got to add..u stated that u b-lieved no infidelity in ur marriage and that u got this by non-sexual means..why would it b a "battle in ur marriage" as u posted prior now?
I am going in for a biopsy in 1 hour... scary! Eeek.
Good luck. You'll be fine. Let us know how everything goes. BTW, just b/c you have hpv doesn't mean you'll get cancer. Less than 5% will actually develop cancer and usually there are a other factors involved (# of births, other diseases, smoking). Just HPV alone will not cause cancer. I called the CDC and they told me that one. Call the CDC if you get bored one and ask them about HPV and cancer.
piece of cake..u'll be fine!
It went okay... I'll know early next week. Kinda hurt;(
Question... even during a normal pap the swabbing hurts. My new doc (since I recently moved) said, "hmm, interesting" when I told her that the swabbing hurts. Does this cause you all discomfort and pain? I would describe it as onset of cramps with dull pain with the moving of the q-tip.
Question... even during a normal pap the swabbing hurts. My new doc (since I recently moved) said, "hmm, interesting" when I told her that the swabbing hurts. Does this cause you all discomfort and pain? I would describe it as onset of cramps with dull pain with the moving of the q-tip.
You are reading content posted in the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Community
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