HPV virus type 16...just been diagnosed and a bit worried, couple of questions...?

Hi below as some facts that will help u understand more about this virus, hope this information and links helps answer your question. Ciao ♥

HPV FACTS

HPV is passed from person to person, often indirectly. HPV on the skin may be passed to another person when that person touches the wart. It may take several months for HPV to appear if transmission occurs.

Warts are contagious, excreting large loads of HPV viral particles. If a person with a wart on a finger were to touch a genital area in a manner vigorous enough to slightly break the skin, this might transmit the virus to that area

Sadly, most areas of skin that possess HPV infection have no outward signs. Thus, the infection may be transmitted to the uninfected area of a partner without any knowledge of this fact by either partner. This is the manner in which almost all HPV infections are apparently transmitted. So, practically, if partners choose to have direct skin-to-skin contact between genitalia, then it may be impossible to know if HPV virus is being transmitted or not

Genital warts are caused by human papilloma virus (HPV). They are very contagious and can spread to other parts of the body (such as groins, inner thighs and pubis) or to other person through skin-to-skin contact normally during genital sex, oral or anus. It can also spread through secondary contact for instance through a towel, sharing underwear or like especially if not washed thoroughly..

Since you have genital warts, there is a high possibility that you got it from your sex partner(s). If you only have sex with your partner, then most likely they are infected too. It would be advisable to get them to go for check up. To prevent spreading to others, practice sex safe.

TREATMENT

Aldara is quite a new kind of drug that use to remove genital warts. Responses to the cream vary from person to person. It is common to experience redness, swelling, itching, flaking or scabbing at or around the application area during the treatment. Treatment with Aldara cream may also result in swelling, small open sores and drainage. Itching and/ burning is included.

You normally need to apply the cream until the genital warts disappear or up to 16 weeks. New warts may develop during the Aldara treatment. It cannot cure hpv though and so far there is no cure for hpv. Your genital warts may be removed but hpv stays in your body. When you body immune system is not able to fight off the hpv, new warts will recur.

Aldara cream may not remove all genital warts, if it does not work, you need to seek other treatment.

http://www.aldara.com/

http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm

http://www.stdservices.on.net/std/

http://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/default.htm

http://www.forces-of-nature.net/topics/warts/hpv.h...

http://health.yahoo.com/sexualhealth-treatment/gen...

Well sweetie, I am a bit concerned that your doctor did not answer these questions for you and if she did, she gave you wrong information. 1st, there would be no way of you knowing who gave this to you or if you caught it a year ago or 15 years ago unless you have only had sexual intercourse with only one person your entire life. although the HPV just came up in test results it does not mean you havent been carrying around with this for years. it just means that the HPV was dormant in your system. Just like Herpes, sometimes it is dormant in your system until something sets it off. and there is no cure. I dont know why your doctor would reccomment Laser for you if you havent had a colposcopy to check your upper cervix. the doctor is supposed to do a biopsy and send it out for lab testing. If you have a mild dysplasia and it is not cancerous than you are fine just have to stay on top of all your gyn appointments in case something changes so that they can burn, laser or freeze the abnormal cells. People with HPV do not always get cervical cancer but people with cervical cancer always have HPV. I think if you get checked regularly you will be fine. also chances are that if you stick to one partner and you and him are not promiscious the dysplasia might even go away. Men are not really affected by HPV so if he has it he may infect someone else but he will not have anything to really worry about as far as cancer or warts. If Im not mistaken, men are usually not checked for HPV because its a woman disease. Men dont have a cervix. and people with STDs do not always show signs.. that is false. You should always practice safe sex because you never know who is carrying around with an STD and not even know it. You would be surprised how many people have HPV and Herpes in the US. just be careful. take care

Hope I was helpful.

Warts on the hands, feet areas that are not genital are not linked to the HPV types that are found in the genital area.

Here in the US mild dysplasia is not usually treated due to the high rate in which mild dysplasia regresses. A Laser treatment may be standard in another country with mild cell changes. Here in the US if the virus progresses to high grade or severe dysplasia then treatment is done. Some women need more than one treatment. Routing Pap tests helps our doctors monitor our cervix and treat the abnormal cell when needed. Your doctor will tell you when he wants to you to return for follow ups

Most often mild dysplasia does not progress to cancer. Most often women build a natural immunity to their acquired HPV type. It may take a year or two before this immunity is obtained. The progress from mild dysplasia to cancer would probably be 10 years.

There is no HPV test for the male. The only way a man is diagnosed with the virus is when visible warts are seen in the genital area. Many men and women carry an HPV type with no signs or no symptoms. Condoms do not prevent the transmission of the virus…nor will showers prevent the virus from establishing in the genital area.

A person with the virus shed virus particles. The virus particles are shed with the normal process everyone cell tissue goes through. Once the virus sheds then the virus enters the cell tissue through a micro-abrasion of the skin. The friction of sex creates lots of micro-abrasions. The virus is not found in body fluids…but the virus particles can enter the secretion that sex creates, so the virus can entry any genital area. The virus is very easy to share betwdeen partners. There is a 65% chance that your partner acquired your HPV type the first time you had sex.

Men do not share the same health burden as women with the virus do. Men do become carriers and can share their infection with a new sex partner. Men can acquire the virus during oral sex. Men that smoke do seem to be at high risk for oral lesion.

There is not cure for the virus. Treatments remove the abnormal cell changes. You will become HPV negative…and this means the virus is a low virtual load not being seen in your Pap or HPV test….but you can’t guarantee that you will never share your HPV type. Once you acquire an HPV type, you can’t get that type again your body remembers it…but the original virus can reactivate years after acquiring the infection…and we can acquire new HPV types with a new sex partner.

Sometimes abnormal cells will show a few months after acquiring the infection…but it can takes years before abnormal cells changes develop or visible genital warts are seen

most studies of women with cervical HPV disease indicate that approximately 64-70% of their partners will have HPV penile lesions if evaluated clinically. Most often, these are so small that neither partner is aware of their presence.

When one partner has HPV lesions caused by a particular virus type, it is most likely that the other partner shares the same virus type, although this is often impossible to prove. Several studies indicate that "shared HPV" does not "ping-pong" back and forth. There is evidence that using condoms may decrease the viral exposure and speed the clearance of HPV related disease. The decreased viral load may allow the individual's own immune system a better chance of eliminating the virus.

The inability to be 100% sure that an individual with a history of an HPV infection is no longer contagious should encourage honesty whenever a new relationship begins. This should be balanced with the fact that most people are exposed to this virus during their life, and that, for most, this virus does not usually cause great harm

http://www.asccp.org/hpv_history.shtml

many women who spontaneously clear one specific type of HPV become infected with another HPV type. This is part of the reason that infection with multiple types of HPV is quite common in sexually active adolescents and young women

it is unclear how many HPV-infected women who become HPV DNA negative actually have complete viral clearance and how many continue to harbor the viral genome in the basal cells of the squamous epithelium, but at such a low copy number that they cannot be detected using standard molecular tests. Such undetectable, low-level infections are usually referred to as “latent infections” and are similar to the latent infections that are seen with herpes simplex virus and varicella zoster

http://www.jfponline.com/Pages.asp?AID=7892&issue=...