Let us imagine that I have never had sexual relations with anyone but my wife and that she has never had sexual relations with anyone but me. Would there be any chance either of us could have an HPV infection? Would there be any point to her getting Pap tests?
You’re including oral sex, I assume, in the “no sexual relations” exclusion?
I do know that HPV can (uncommonly) be transmitted during childbirth from an infected mother to a vaginally-delivered infant. Not sure if there are other means.
Edit: Cite.
Second edit: Pap smears might still be a good idea since there are probably other risk factors for cervical cancer.
HPV is passed skin to skin; not fluid-to-fluid; although transmission from incidental contact is unlikely, it may be possible. There was one study that showed that people with genital warts carry HPV on their hands, but it was very small and doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere. Some related research.
Some people don’t think HPV should be described as an STD at all, because you don’t infect others by having sex per se, but by touching them.
Doesn’t HPV cause warts? I have a wart on my hand that I got while I was still a virgin. I get it removed, it comes back a year later.
It can but doesn’t have to. There are also many strains of HPV - the vaccine only targets the 2 tied to cervical cancer and the 2 that are the most common causes of genital warts.
My cousin’s wife has HPV warts on the sole of her feet and cannot totally get rid of them because they reproduce. She says she probably got them from walking barfoot at the gym. I do not know if that is possible. On the other hand I cannot imagine how else she could get it. Every so often she needs to have them removed.
It was kind of funny because she started talking about her HPV warts over lunch and I was a bit taken aback that she would talk about it so freely saying she just had them removed again and it hurt like a bitch, etc. She asked me if I knew about HPV and I said yes, still believing she was talking about genital warts. Only after a while it ws mentioned that they were on the soles of her feet. Everybody knew the history except me. Thank goodness I kept quiet.
That is to say, HPV causes warts of various types (see the correlation between some types of HPV and the type of symptoms they produce here) but it is not the case that people with HPV necessarily have warts. In fact, the majority of infections are asymptomatic.
Planned Parenthood Says
HPV is so common that about half of all men and more than 3 out of 4 women have HPV at some point in their lives. But most people who have HPV don’t know it.
And even if they have symptoms, genital warts are not the one and only. Cervical changes (leading to cancer) are also findings with HPV, and not necessarily related with genital warts. Some strains are more likely to lead to warts, while others may skip the warts and go straight for the cervix (joy!).