I’m 45 and have just had an abnormal smear result, showing high risk HPV and low grade dyskyasosis/ CIN 1. I’ve never had an abnormal smear before. I didn’t know that there is a peri/menopause ‘spike’ in HPV, and that this can come from either reactivation of an old infection or a new infection/reinfection.
In my case, it feels very likely that it’s the latter (married for 20 years, now divorced, one new sexual partner post-divorce). One study I read said that while it is very difficult to establish whether HPV is a new infection or reactivation, when it appears in older women there is a strong link with new partners. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4068337/#S9
The HPV vaccine protects against 9 of the most serious strains of HPV. It can’t protect against a reactivation of a strain but it can protect against reinfection and against infection from strains that you have not encountered previously.
If I’d known all of this a year ago I would 100% have got the HPV vaccine privately before having sex with new partners again. I expect some replies will say that HPV is very common and nothing to worry about – but in a minority of cases it can be very serious indeed and if I’d been making an informed choice, I would have chosen to take the vaccine for the added protection it provides. I just didn’t know how it worked or that I could benefit from it!
I'm posting this in the hope that it might help someone else. (Also, very happy for any experts to correct my explanation above and provide more accurate knowledge)
AIBU not to have known that the HPV vaccine could be beneficial at my age (45)?
Yes you are unreasonable not to have known. Everyone knows this.
No you are not unreasonable. It's news to me too.