KimRick

HPV is spread through skin-to-skin contact, so condoms will not protect you & condom manufacturers are re-designing their labels to reflect that. 80% of the sexually active population is infected and don't even know it! There are about 100 different strains out there, "categorized" into 2 categories: high & low risk.

High risk strains are not associated with actual warts, but will cause you to have cervical cellular abnormalities, if left untreated, will progress to cervical cancer. The low risk strains are not associated with any cellular abnormalities, but will cause you to have actual warts. The disease does not live in the blood, therefore, a blood test will not confirm infection. If a man is infected with a high risk strain, there is no way to make a diagnosis and that's what makes this disease so dangerous, because a man will never know he's infected with a high risk strain (unless, the girlfriend/wife comes forward). If a man is diagnosed with a low risk strain, diagnosis can be made upon examination of the wart/s. If a woman is infected with a low risk strain, daignosis can be made upon examination of the wart/s. If a woman is infected with a high risk strain, diagnosis can be made through a pap and then through what is called The HPV DNA Digene test, which is performed on a culture that was taken from the cervix. It's performed in order to determine which strain/s she may be infected with.

Unlike herpes, you cannot "reinfect" yourself with the same strain. Once you have that strain, that's it. Now, it's totally possible to "reinfect" yourself with another strain, but that usually happens when there are multiple partners. It is very possible to be infected with a high risk and low risk strain, so that you have both abnormal cellular activity AND genital warts. You can check webmd if you need anymore info.

I hope this helped!