Living with HPV
in Health ·
Charles Thomas70 said:Well, that’s why you get them removed; nobody says you have to just live with them 🙄
If you aren't seeing doctors, living with HPV isn't exactly easy—warts, or condylomas, can make sex painful and eventually lead to more serious issues.
Similarly, any neoplastic changes have to be dealt with. This means undergoing whatever procedures are available depending on where the changes are located—for women, that could be the cervix, vagina, or vulva, and for men, it's the penis or urethra.
HPV doesn't stay in the body forever like the herpes virus does; the immune system eventually overcomes it. But if you want to help your body along, you have to have a doctor handle the changes the virus causes—namely condylomas and neoplasia.
Neoplasia refers to CIN, which can be detected via a Pap smear, so it's important for women to visit their gynecologist regularly. In men, these are found through peniscopies.
A Pap smear doesn't actually prove you have HPV; it just shows cellular changes. A Pap smear won't identify the cause. Cytology might suggest HPV is present and lead to a swab test, but essentially, HPV is only confirmed through a swab. Also, if you have external condylomas—on the vulva or perianal area for women, or on the penis for men—you don't need to "prove" you have HPV; it's pretty obvious.
Men can have condylomas inside the urethra without even knowing it, since nothing might be visible on the penis. Beyond that, they can have flat condylomas that aren't visible to the naked eye, requiring a peniscopy to detect them.
Amy Long9—I'm not sure if you know this, but there are over 150 types of HPV. There are the genital types we're discussing, but then there are types that attack other areas, like warts on your hands or legs.
Genital HPV is split into high-risk and low-risk groups. High-risk basically means it will almost certainly lead to carcinoma, whereas low-risk very rarely does.
High-risk types usually cause neoplasia but can also cause condylomas, while low-risk types do the opposite.
The vaccine protects against two high-risk types—16 and 18—and two of the most common low-risk ones, 6 and 11.
Types 16 and 18 are the most dangerous and have the highest malignant potential, meaning they can very quickly cause changes that progress into cancer over time.
Vaccination is intended for girls and women whose swabs have come back negative for those four specific types. Otherwise, it won't help because the infection has already occurred. And the vaccine doesn't last a lifetime; you need booster shots.
HPV doesn't enter the entire system. You can give blood normally, and it can't be detected through bloodwork. So, please don't ask questions about how to "live" with HPV—it isn't HIV.
HPV stays in the epithelium in the area that came into contact with the virus. It is transmitted through skin-to-skin contact or mucous membrane contact.
HPV is like a genital version of the flu. You catch it, and in 70% of cases, it clears up just as quickly as it arrived, but in 30% of cases, it creates abnormal cells. No one knows exactly why; it's usually attributed to a weakened immune system.
It's estimated that about 90% of women are infected. However, since most have normal Pap smears, they might not even know they have HPV unless they get a swab. For women over 30, an HPV swab is mandatory. Men tend to be more resilient and clear the virus faster, but they can still experience changes that require treatment (like cauterization) from a dermatologist.
Basically, you don't "live" with HPV; you urgently address the changes it causes. If there are no changes, there is no danger, and the body will eventually defeat it (once the changes are removed, too). It's estimated to take a maximum of two years, though it could be longer.
If your Pap smear is normal, you might not even know you have HPV, even if you do 😉. Women only really panic when something shows up on a Pap smear. So, if they lived normally until that point, what does that tell you?
PLEASE STOP TALKING NONSENSE!!!
You probably don't even have it, which is why you're acting so smart. Try living with it yourself. You can't have sex like a normal person, you can't enjoy oral sex, and having a baby is risky because the infant could end up with genital warts or HPV in their throat... Do you think it's easy to carry all that weight on your conscience??? You bring up HIV being spread through blood, but what do people interact with more often—blood or physical contact???
There's really nothing else to say besides that you clearly have no idea what you're talking about!