HPV and Me

In My Humble Opinion
1

Well, really, HPV and Her.

So my girlfriend went in for a check-up and her pap came back with some “abnormal cells”. Then she got a follow-up test and it came back negative. Then she got another one and it can back positive. Then she went in for removal of the aforementioned cells and they couldn’t find any.

This whole process has taken something like 6 months. Now she’s waiting another 3 for her next pap. It seems perpetually in the back of her mind. She feels “broken” and her sexual self-confidence is pretty low.

Now I’ve done some reading into this, and abnormal cells seem to be usually caused by HPV, which seems to about as damn common as the flu. And, I mean, how serious can this be if they’re waiting months and months. I just can’t get myself worried about it.

Then again, I can’t get cervical cancer. Nor can I get tested for HPV. But I’m trying to be as supportive and comforting as possible

So, is this anything to worry about? Are “abnormal cells” something to stay up at night worrying over? Is this common? What can I say to her to make her feel better about the whole thing?

2

Incredibly common to have abnormal cells. 90% of the women I know have had at least one pap test come back as atypical. Normal cervical changes do take place. Vaginitis, everyday infections, and smoking increase the changes of having an atypical result, not just HPV. This is an excerpt from this site.

3

Why can’t you get tested for HPV? Can no male be tested?

4

There is no commercially available approved test for men. Men can get the acetic acid test (they put vinegar on your privates and look to see if anything turns white) but this only shows whether or not you have warts. Sperm banks test donations for HPV and in theory I suppose you could find a urologist who would do it for you.

5

Just based on the little information I received and gathered since I was diagnosed with pre-cervical cancer, there is no need to worry now. As **Cyros ** mentioned, there are many reasons for a Pap test to come back abnormal. Your girlfriend does not necessarily have HPV just because of an abnormal test, and HPV does not necessarily mean she will develop cancer. Try not to worry about the cancer aspect, with regular checkups pre-cancer can be caught and treated before turning into anything more serious.
As I said before, this is just from my experience, so much of it may not be applicable to your situation. Hope it helped a little, and best wishes to you and your girlfriend!

6

Note: what follows is not cheerful. Maybe I’ll put a cheerful spin on toward the end.

I guess it bothers me to see a guy be so nonchalant about this. The down side for you is you may be/become a carrier of something that puts every woman you sleep with for the rest of your life at risk for cervical cancer. Which can kill people, make them infertile, etc. So maybe it wouldn’t hurt guys to take this a little more seriously.

Regarding the current situation, maybe it will help your girlfriend for you to empathize a little more deeply. After all, her life and her fertility (ability to ever have children of her own) may be at some risk. If you can let her know that you’ll stay with her and love her whether this turns out to be some big horrible deal, or something small she got worried about over nothing, I think that would be a nice attitude for a boyfriend to have about it. Also, be sure she is having conversations about her fears with her doctor. And if she has a doctor who is brusque or condescending or whatever, encourage her to find another one.

In any case, best of luck to you both with a difficult situation.

7

About seven years ago, I had an abnormal pap (pre-cancerous) come back due to HPV (yes, they can determine through a pap smear and additional testing WHY it comes back abnormal). I went through a colposcopy (they looked at with a microscope and biopsied my cervix) and eventually had a LEEP process where they burned off a large chunk of my cervix. TMI–this has made my cervix so weak and scarred that it’s unlikely that I will ever be able to carry a normal pregnancy. For about three years, I had a pap smear every six months–now I’m up to once a year, and all have been normal.

However…

I will always carry HPV in my body. I can pass this along to any person with whom I have sex, even if we use condoms. I have no idea where, or when I got it. Aside from the abnormal pap smear, I have had absolutely no symptoms. My next pap smear could turn up abnormal, or I could go for the rest of my life with normal pap smears.

My GYN has told me that nearly everyone who has been sexually active in my age bracket (35-45) carries the HPV, but I haven’t had a partner (my choice) since I was diagnosed. Knowing that I could pass this along to someone who doesn’t already have it is one responsibility that I’m not ready to take on. Plus, there’s the embarrassment of telling someone, “Oh, yes, I’d love to have sex with you, however, I have HPV that will never go away, has no known ‘cure’, and condoms probably won’t prevent it from passing along to you.”

8

I had an abnormal pap about 2 years ago and they found HPV. I was ready to write my will and give up all hopes of a family right there.

What my doctor told me was that upwards of 80% of people 25-35 have HPV, that only a very few types of the virus actually lead to cervical cancer, and that even if I did have pre-cancerous cells, the fact that they were found so early means that the cancer would be manageable. She also said the body can usually deal with the virus, so that while it’s true there’s no cure, it’s not really any kind of big deal. She compared it to cold sores.

Turns out she was right. Two years later after having paps first every three, then every six months, I’m back to normal. So continue being supportive, but tell her not to stay up at night. There’ll be plenty of time to deal with the problem later, if a problem ever really develops.

9

raises hand with silly question

If a woman’s pap test came back normal, and then she joined a nunnery and never had sex again, would future tests all come back normal, or would her previous sexual experiences still put her at risk of future abnormal results?

10

I’ve got a variant on that; I haven’t been sexually active in about 12 years and have had two recent Paps come back negative. I talk to the doc about what the chances would be that it wouldn’t have shown up by now. She just said that I won’t need Paps but every three years now. I plan to give up on them because I hate them and imagine that anything that could show up would have by now.

11

Ok, this will probably be long.

When I was 18, I got the red letter telling me I had an abnormal pap, that it came back VERY bad on the scale (A 3a or something) I went in for the biopsy, which was horrifying. The doctor recommended laser surgery over the freezing because it would kill more abnormal cells. Through research I learned that NONE of those procedures would guarantee or even make less likely that abnormal cells would grow back immediately after.

They denied to provide me with birth control because I chose to go against the doctors wishes. I had to go from doctor to doctor to not get pregnant because I believed I was more right, and more broke, than the doctor.

I’ve pretty much always had abnormal tests. I get a few for a while, then they start coming back normal. I had a wonderful doctor who was a Professor. She described my experience as being on “the pap train.” Explained how the angle of the cell growth in that area (very close to a right angle) makes it highly likely for abnormal cells to develop as a matter of course. She also told me about a new test that many insurance companies do not pay for that has a much better accuracy rate than the “false positive” prone Pap test.

I am now 38 years old, delived a normal, healthy child 15 months ago and was physically able to carry her to term. Would you like to know why?

Had I allowed them to carve away at my cervix all the times they told me they wanted to, I’d have ended up with them lasering my tonsils. There is no possible way my cervix would have survived. I battled that crap for 10 years. I don’t have cancer, I’ve never had cancer and I may one day have cancer, but I am very, fucking, glad that the do-gooders did not take away my ability to have my own child.

Never being able to carry a child, having your cervix sewn shut to prevent it from collapsing, the anguish and pain every time something comes back negative? Because they KNOW the things I have said here, and yet again, it is a fabulous example of how medical care for women has historically been terrible.

It was my own stubbornness that saved me from them.

Yes, HPV is common, but the number of women who it actually turns into cancer for are extremely rare.

Have your girlfriend ask for the new test. Pay for it out of pocket. Don’t let them mutilate her. Tell her to stay on top of it and find a damn doctor that is aware of the problems of traditional pap tests and doesn’t automatically start carving away at her motherhood.

12

Abnormal pap smears are relatively common. I had to go for a test every six months for a few years after they found the first abnormal cells. I have not had an abnormal pap since that time.

13

I had an abnormal Pap and had to go in for additional HPV testing. That came back fine and I’ve not had a problem since. I requested the first report and what happened was that one person read it as fine, the second person read it as possibly abnormal, so to be safe I was retested and had the HPV done as well. All clear and happy.

14

Raises eyebrows Condoms don’t make much difference to HPV? Since when? I’m not disputing that, but do you have a cite? I was under the impression that they helped enormously.

15

Was it Thin Prep? Sounds more accurate.

I’m on the pap train too. About every 3rd test comes back “atypical”. The gyn said this was very common, especially in smokers. I don’t smoke anymore (2 years on Jan 4), but I also haven’t had a test in that time so I don’t know if not smoking will reduce these results. I’m pretty unconcerned about this point. This has been going on for more than a decade and no treatment has ever been needed, and nothing has progressed.

16

Starting in April next year, the Australian government is funding an immunisation program against HPV in teenage girls. The drug, Gardasil, is effective against the most virulent strains of HPV, and has been added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, meaning it is being provided free of charge to 12-13 year olds in schools. Women up to 26 years (including me!) can recieve the three vaccinations free of charge from their doctor.

Now, my biggest challenge is FINDING a doctor. The town I moved to back in August has no GPs accepting new patients, and this in a city of 100,000.

17

More on HPV from Dan Savage.

18

My pap came back abnormal earlier this year. I had a colposcopy, which confirmed that I had abnormal cells (dysplasia), and HPV. I wasn’t too surprised I guess, because a former boyfriend of mine told me (after we’d been sleeping together for about a year) that his ex-girlfriend had to have some “abormal cells frozen off her cervix.” Tha bastahd… well, I had to go in for “cryosurgery,” which sounds terrifying, but actually the colposcopy was more uncomfortable. They froze off the abnormal cells and told me to come back every 3 months for a year, and all that jazz. So I go back next week for my checkup, and hopefully I come back normal! That’s my story. Reading up, it seems that the “dysplasia-prone” HPV carriers aren’t as rare as people tend to think. That’s my impression, but it may just be because I’ve been reading up on it.

And as a side-note to the OP, I do believe this means you are now a carrier for HPV (possibly the bad kind - and indeed you might’ve been the one who gave it to her), so you should definitely let anyone else you sleep with KNOW what they’re getting into, as awkward as it may be, because if they don’t know and don’t get regular pap smears, it could very well cost them their lives and/or fertility. Cervical cancer is nothing to play with, and if it’s not detected early, it can be hard to get a handle on. Again, IANAD, so this isn’t a medical opinion, just my impression from lots of online reading.

19

In college I had a pap come up with abnormal cells. After a culposcopy, they determined I had level 3 dysplasia (can’t remember exact term) which was not so good. I had cryosurgery (which sucked), then went back and had another abnormal pap, had cryo again, and finally started getting normal pap smears. I have had normal pap smears for 10 years now.

At the time the doctor told me that I probably had HPV, but they never did any sort of test. There has been zero evidence of HPV since. I think my body may have managed to get rid of it, huzzah!

20

Ahh, storytime. I have/had HPV as well. In fact, due to scores of youthful indiscretions on my part, I had not only one of the strains that causes the pre-cancerous cells, but also one of the strains that causes genital warts - plus goodness knows how many other asymptomatic strains! So, within a span of two months, I not only had to get about five pap smears, but also a wart treatment called Aldara (excruciatingly painful) and a colposcopy (even more excruciatingly painful).

It has now been a year, and I have had a string of normal pap smears, and no recurrence of warts. In fact, after the initial massive flare-up, everything went back to normal so fast that at one point, I had several doctors gathered around, marvelling at my miraculously-cured nether regions.

Now, it’s only been a year - who knows what the future may bring, of course. But I’m very optimistic. All I can suggest is that you be there for your girlfriend as much as possible - try to drive her to doctors’ appointments, research HPV with her, remind her that you think she’s beautiful and not a walking virus… all that good stuff. I was (and still am!) extremely single and living far away from my family when all this occurred, and it just made the whole ordeal that much harder, not having any loved ones around for support.

Now for the ironic part. Despite the aforementioned rather numerous indiscretions, I actually happen to know exactly where and when I picked up the HPV, and ironically, I was using a condom at the time. It broke. I definitely don’t have any moralistic abstintence-only crap to add, but it is useful to realize that all things we do in life carry some element of risk, no matter what. You just try to do the best you can, you know?