How Long for HPV

[steve783]

Hello Doctor, I was wondering how long would HPV be active in a man. I have read in many sites that a person can get rid of the virus in 2 years, but what happens if this is not the case, for example, your partner tested for high risk HPV at the begining of the relationship, lets say 4 years during the relationship you split with the peron; now you start dating someone else and disclose the risk for high risk HPV from 4 years ago, the new person gets tested and finds no problems, the next year for the anual pap, it comes back with high risk HPV.
1. Can a man carrie the virus for the rest of his life?
2. What about the risk to the new partner, could he be spreading that virus over and over to that same person?
3. What are the risk for that man and penil, or throat cancers?
4. Would my partner be able to fight the virus for high risk?
5. Should we keep using condoms and would I have to use condoms for the rest of our lifes?


Thank you

[steve783]

Thank you Doctor for the information, I’m very nervous about this virus and the fact that I might have had it for over 5 years really scares me; don’t really know what to expect.
The guilt that I feel of passing this to my partner is horrible;  any words of advice and encouragement are really appreciated.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Interesting questions which have been addressed in one form or another over the past.  The issue really gets own to probabilities, thus when we talk about percentages over time we can talk about general risk but not individual risks an circumstances.  Thus while well over 90% of HPV infections resolve without therapy over a two year period, some do not.  Also, before we get to issues raised in your questions, another important point is that HPV is extraordinarily common and for this reason, few, if any major sources of health testing resources recommend routine HPV testing since a positive test really tells little about how long the infection has been present or where it came from.  With this as background, let's briefly work through your questions:

1.  I suppose that this is a possibility although the chance is quite low.  How much is less, hard to say, probably less than 1%. If this were not the case, there would be a lot more penile cancer.

2.  See above.  Risk for throat cancer is far, far lower than for penile but the research does not give us a precise number.

3.  Yes, most probably. further, with regular PAP smears as recommended, her risk for having serious consequences from cancer would be small as PAPS detect them early at a relatively easily treatable, non-life threatening stage.

4.  No, for all of the reasons outlined above, I would not see a need for continued condom use. What is done is done.

Hope this helps. EWH