My hpv case please read and advice - Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Message Board

LT101 · 01-22-2003, 11:49 AM

First all of im sexually active. last x-mas eve i was on vac and i slept with an old friend of mine. 2 weeks later she tells me she had sort of looking warts around her.....so she finally got herself checked and last week she told me the doctors told her she has HPV....i freaked out.....if she did get it from me it must had been during oral sex....cause i used protection during intercourse....we did it quite a few times. This is when my confusion begins Im a 21 year old male I 've slept with 5 girls....I have learned about hpv the last couple of days and I have never showm any sings of it, no warts no nothing. however Im in the category where Im one of many that have this white dots looking things around the head of my penis, but I started getting them when i was 15 i didnt have any sexual intercourse till i was 17. Also im not circumsize. I learned that in some of us the white dots are normal. so at least i know for a fact that i did not get the white dots due to sexual intercourse. so i would say besides that; i have no warts or any other sings of HPV. This is the other part that confuses me: I dated this girl for 2 years.....i was her first....and did all types of sexual intercourse with her no comdoms the whole nine yards....so if i had HPV wouldnt she have it too?? after a whole year of having sex with her?? thats not all but I still sleep with her every once in a while at least once a month....after being with my friend (the one who is telling me has HPV) on x-mas eve....I came back home and have slept with my ex 2 times (i know what you all must be thinking) but you see I've been doing it with my ex for more than a year before and after having sex with my other friend on x-mas eve...but neither me nor my ex have no sings, no warts nothing....I slept with my friend and a few weeks later she tells me she has HPV. is this posible?? could the doctors be wrong? is HPV only noticeable in certain people? could she had gotten it from someone else but not show any sings till now?? I know you all must be thinking that this is a waste of time cause I still havent gotten myself checked.but i will. I just learned of all this last week.....so please could any of you answer some of my questions and advice....thanks for your time.

J

Girliegirl · 01-27-2003, 09:56 AM

1. It's possible for men and women to have HPV without ever having signs of it. Not all strains cause visible warts.

2. It's possible for a men to give them to a woman (and vice versa) during sex even with condoms because the scrotum can have HPV on it, which can touch the perianal area on a woman.

3. It's possible that she did have this before she slept with you, but either way, you know you've been exposed to it. Sometimes people carry HPV for months or years before symptoms become visible.

4. About 1 in 4 sexually active adults have HPV.

shucks · 01-27-2003, 12:26 PM

(((i used protection during intercourse....)))

Using protection does NOT mean you nor anybody else is safe from HPV. HPV is caught skin-to-skin contact.

You can have HPV for years and not even know it. The only visible signs is warts (which sometimes NEVER appear), and abnormal papsmears.

It is impossible to find out who gave it to who.

Warts can be from singlar to multiples, it can be small (even small enough where you cant even see them) they can also get big and look like a calaflower shape.

It is too hard to tell if you had it first or if she. Warts can appear within weeks to months and may show up years after having it, and most of the time warts will never appear......that is why HPV is one of the most common spread virus there is, because nobody knows if they have it or not.

Yes you should use protection however since it is a skin-to-skin contact protection will not protect you from getting HPV.

It is true she could have had it before she slept with you, but at the same time you could have had it too. It is too hard to even point any fingers.

vaguy · 01-27-2003, 12:48 PM

In addition to the replies above which make some very could points, I thought I would add two things:

1) Some people who get HPV, and can pass HPV to others, will never show visible signs...even with the strains that produce warts. Some peoples' immune systems will keep the virus at bay. The warts are the result of a mutation in skin cells, from the virus infection. I've read numbers somewhere that something like 1 in 8 people who get HPV actually show visible symptoms EVER. (I don't know how accurate the number is, but a such number does exist to this fact)

2) It has HARD to get "tested" for HPV. The virus lies in the skin and not in the blood. Therefore, until you have visible symptons (ie warts), it is difficult to accurately test for HPV. When people go get checked, this usually does NOT include any form of a test for HPV. So, in most cases, people who say they have been tested.....are not necessarily clean of HPV.

I got tested multiple times before I knew I had HPV, and was told I was clean -- even when I'm positive now that I must have had it.

They really need to do a better job educating people about this virus in sex ed....I had never even heard of it or knew how contagious and common it was until it was too late.