I have HPV, my girlfriend is freaking... - Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Message Board

SDH · 01-16-2008, 10:17 AM

Ok, I have HPV... Just found out yesterday. I had these warts and thought that they were just skin tags since I've had skin tags before. They're not, right after finding out their warts and I have HPV the doctor congratulated me with a extremely painful Q-tip shoved all the way up my penis and I almost passed out, but staying on track...

I've had a girlfriend for 2 years, I took her virginity, and now I most likely gave her HPV, and I feel like *****. She cried, she thinks she's going to get cervical cancer, I don't know what to do... What exactly can she do? I want her to be tested and then hopefully she doesn't have it, but we had sex so much I'm pretty sure she has it. I wish I knew I had it before all this, cause I could have prevented this and to top it off, I probably gave it to another girl, and I gotta tell her, but she's a mom and I just don't know how to tell her this. I'm afraid she'll kill me. Anyone know what I can do to both these women to save them from cancer? I care enough about both of them, especially my girlfriend, to want to save them from cancer and potentially a shorter life.

sam76 · 01-16-2008, 11:41 AM

I know how daunting it can be when you find out you have it. Trust me, I went through absolute hell worrying about all the what-ifs. But don't beat yourself up over this. It sounds like you were honest with her as soon as you knew, so it's not like you withheld information from her. The best thing your girlfriend can do is inform herself as much as possible, and she also needs to be supportive of you because most people who aren't familiar with HPV do not realize just how common this virus is. In my last response to someone I mentioned that it's about as common as the common cold. About 3/4 of the population are walking around with HPV... it's just, not everyone shows symptoms of it and there's no way of knowing you have it unless you have physical symptoms or an abnormal pap test... so you can't prevent it if you don't know, right? One of the many cons of having it...

Explain to your girlfriend that the strains of HPV that cause genital warts DO NOT cause cervical cancer. The only way it's possible to start having cell changes that are pre-cancerous is by contracting one of the thirteen strains of it that can lead to cervical cancer. It's possible you could have contracted more than one strain, and you wouldn't know that you did because you likely won't exhibit any symptoms of that since it's more particular to women. So aside from informing herself, I would strongly recommend she pay a visit to the doctor and get a pap test done so that they can do a culture swab to see if there are abnormal cell growths... which would indicate she has contracted one of those strains. But if not, then she has nothing to worry about in terms of developing cancer. There's also an HPV vaccine, Gardasil, that protects against the four major strains of the virus - including the two that most frequently cause cell changes in the cervix - and that is something she can consider.

And also let her know that your body tends to take care of this virus all on its own within a year... two years, tops. 90% of people clear the virus after two years I believe... so it's not as scary as people think it is if you keep an eye on it. It's not a death sentence and it's not the end of the world.

Read as much as you can about it and you'll see how much better you'll start to feel.