Human Papilloma Virus, pretty common they say.
Anyone know how its spread? The net wasn’t of much assistance, which is unusual.
Sex. It’s the cause of genital warts and, in women, cervical cancer.
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
Yep, sex does it. The warts can look like infected razor bumps. I’m taking Indole-3-Carbinole to slow the spread and decrease my chances of developing cancer.
I mis-wasted my youth.
Yep, sex does it. The warts can look like infected razor bumps. I’m taking Indole-3-Carbinole to slow the spread and decrease my chances of developing cancer.
I mis-wasted my youth.
Just gotta know where to look.
Most HPVs cause your standard type of warts. Plantar and what-not. All HPVs are transmitted by contact, sexual or otherwise.
They are not the cause of cervical cancer, but they can contribute to its appearance. You can get cervical cancer without exposure to HPV, AFAIK.
Gypsy: Tom, I don’t get you.
Tom Servo: Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby.
I’ve got it. According to my doctor, it can be sexually transmitted, but it isn’t always. It can incubate for a very long time. I had surgery in January to remove the abnormal cells from my cervix. If left untreated, it can become cancerous. That’s why it is SO important for women to get their yearly pap smears. My doctor says that with the particular virus that I have, men are usually the carriers, and don’t show any symptoms. They just pass it on to the women they have sex with. My doctor says there is a test that can be done on the men, though, to determine if they have it.
HPV is also the cause of ordinary warts, like you get on your hands. There are many types of HPV. It really is common. Shortly after I found out that I have it, I learned that one of my stepsisters and a woman I work with also have it. Weirded me right out!
I’ve got to go back for another pap next month. I’ll have to have one ever four months this year, then every six months next year, then back to once a year. As long as everything is normal, that is. Funny, I used to hate pap smears. Not any more. A routine pap caught a problem, and caught it early. I will whistle my way through every pap smear I have for the rest of my life.
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The reason I asked is because I met someone with HPV. Shes about to have a hysterectomy because of the dysplasia [abnormal cell growth].
What I read on the net is it’s spread from skin to skin contact. That would mean just shaking hands; but that doesn’t sound right.
It can also be present in the mouth (Believe me I saw pictures of that on the net too).
Does that rule out kissing?
HPV is spread through genital on genital contact and can also be spread through having oral sex. Wearing a condom won’t necessarily prevent it because there is still skin to skin contact. If someone has the warts in their mouth and you kiss them, you can contract it that way too. It’s treatable with an antibiotic cream if caught early enough (for women, I don’t know about men??) If it’s caught at a later stage and dsyplasia occurs, the woman will need a biopsy (colposcopy) and can have a LEEP procedure done or have her cervix frozen. Both are rather uncomfortable but they seem to do the trick. It’s really important for a woman to have a pap every year and to a pap about 1 month after sleeping with a new partner. It’s better to find out as early as possible if you’ve contracted something, that way you and your partner can be treated.
That John Denver’s full of shit man!
“Wearing a condom won’t necessarily
prevent it because there is still skin to skin contact”
There is? How so?
A condom only covers the shaft so there is still skin to skin contact of the balls on the vagina. If the woman is on top there’s going to be more contact than there would be by being in a missionary or doggie position. This is what I’ve been told and what I have read about… makes sense to me.
That John Denver’s full of shit man!
I have a feeling people who have genital HPV don’t have sex very often.
The funny thing about HPV is that there are 60+ viruses that cause it, but only 3 or so that have visible symptoms (like warts). So the vast majority of people who have HPV–I’ve heard in some populations one in four–don’t know they have it, especially the men. Women will only find out when they have an abnormal pap smear.
I recently had a scare to that effect–luckily, the colposcopy was so completely negative that they couldn’t even find anything to take out in a biopsy. My endo-cervical curettage was also negative. I still have to get pap smears every four months for at least a year until they conclusively determine that there was nothing to be worried about. However, judging from this thread, it’s more common than you’d think, and most of the time those infected don’t even know. This is why getting annual gynecological exams is so crucial for women.
I should probably clarify. In some populations (college students, for example), as many as one in four people have the virus, and most don’t even know they do.
Handy: Sure we do. That’s the kicker. As Drain Bead said, lots of people have it, but don’t know it, and women don’t generally find out they have it until they have an abnormal pap. The virus I have is a very slow-to-incubate one. My doctor told me straight up that there was no way of knowing how long I’ve had this virus, but I can tell you this–I’ve been getting paps every year for 16 years, and the one I had last November was my first abnormal one. I’ve been with my husband for 5 years, and had no other sexual partners in that time. It’s possible that he caught this virus years ago and passed it to me, or I caught it from someone else years ago, and it’s just finally decided to show itself.
The virus I have is not the one that causes the exterior genital warts, though. As Drain said, there’s an awful lot of different viruses that fall under the heading of HPV. The reason it incubates for so long is that in a normal, healthy person, the immune system can usually fight the virus on it’s own, and keep the symptoms from showing. I got pregnant last year, and when I went in for my first office visit in March, I had a pap, and it was normal. I had another one in November, 6 weeks after my son was born, and that’s the one that came back abnormal. My doctor thinks that perhaps this last pregnancy (my third full-term, but actually my fifth pregnancy) weakened my system just enough for the virus to be able to show itself. It wasn’t terrible, but it was enough for me to need the surgery (called a LEEP procedure).
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Have you had your LEEP done yet Cristi? I had to have this done when I was 19 years old. I had severe dysphlasia and had a colposcopy done which determined that the cells were cancerous. (I have a great history of cervical and uterine cancer from my mom’s side of the family. My Aunt died of cervical cancer about 8 years ago.) I had the LEEP done but that didn’t take care of it. About 6 months later I had to have my cervix frozen. That did the trick because I had a pap done every 3 months for a year until they all came back normal and I haven’t had any problems since. All I know is that the doctor that performed my LEEP didn’t give me enough of the local in my cervix because the last piece he cut away hurt really bad. Not a pleasant experience.
Anyway, if you haven’t had it done yet, good luck. And if you have, I hope everything is going well! 
That John Denver’s full of shit man!
Drain, I was talking to a lady yesterday & she pretty much said the same as you. She does have to have a hysterectomy soon [& only 37 years old].
I asked her where she thought she got it & she said she didn’t know & that it can be dormant for years.
Another lady I asked said she underwent the cervical cut thing when she was about 24 [70’s]. The only thing her woman doc suggested was that it could have been from, ‘too much partying…’ It never made much sense to me but wouldn’t it have been practical for the doctor at the time to test for HPV? Wasn’t there a test for that then?
Rachelle: I had my surgery back in January. I have to go back for another pap next month. They lasered the bad cells from my cervix. The surgery was fast, like over in less than 5 minutes fast. But the blast (for lack of a better term) did make me jump and say “Ow!” even with a local anesthetic. The funny part was when my doctor turned on this little machine, and said “don’t worry about the noise, this is just to clear the smoke away.” I laughed. I had to. Smoke and my cervix were two things I had never, ever associated with each other.
Even the doctor saw the humor in that. 
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The high risk hpv viruses that effect the cervix are Number #16 & #18. Of about 93 people who don’t have HPV, after having sex with someone once with HPV, about 67 of them caught it.
Question is, are these two viruses present in the mouth?