To ask how I got HPV?

[AitchPeeVee]

NC’d

I recently got my smear results and I’m HPV positive and have abnormal cells. This has thrown me for a bit of a loop because I’m fully vaccinated against HPV and have only been having sex with DH. I just don’t know how I’ve managed to contract HPV.

Google says, other than sex, HPV can be contracted through “intimate skin-to-skin contact”. Does anyone know what this actually means? I haven’t had what I would consider “intimate” contact. I’ve briefly touched people like my mother, sister etc but not for more than a couple of seconds and no where other than the face/hands/arms. Could I have contracted HPV this way? I don’t think I’ve touched anyone who isn’t in a long term, monogamous relationship.

The only contact I’d think is “intimate” is having DD last year - but presumably I couldn’t have contracted HPV from there.

Could anyone clarify?

You can still get something despite being vaccinated. So probably your husband?

I think HPV can lie dormant for years and years. So have either you or DH ever had sex with anyone else, before you were together? If not, then either DH has cheated, or one of you has got really unlucky with a handshake!

Were you a virgin before you were with your husband?
Had you had any sexual contact (even just hand action…) as it can be spread via this.
Some studies suggest even saunas or examination tables that haven’t been cleaned could be a method of spreading.
Its very very common…

You can have gotten it at birth from your mother if you were born vaginally.

Were you vaccinated before you were sexually active?

Maybe one of you caught it many years ago from a sexual partner, but you wasn't aware? It does lay dormant once someone has had it.

Both virgins before we met, I was vaccinated before I was sexually active.

The vaccine protects against the most common types, but not all types. So you may have a strain not covered by the vaccine.

Also, it’s skin to skin contact in infected areas so without being too graphic if one of you did heavy petting without actual sex with previous partner, could acquire it that way in theory.

It just feels like exceptionally bad luck from everything I’ve read online.

Did you have any form of sexual contact before your DH (or he before you)?

Last time I had a smear, the nurse commented she was seeing lots of HPV positives in vaccinated women.

Although it's blasphemy to question the efficacy or safety of any vaccine...

I work in sexual health. Either one of you could have gotten it from a previous partner before marriage - it doesn't have to be from full penetrative sex. You can also contract HPV from oral sex or any sort of encounter where genitals would come in contact with other genitals or mouths. So I would assume that one of you has done something prior to getting together that led to the infection - so that might have been sex (if your dh hasn't been truthful in saying he was a virgin when you met) or it could have been other sexual contact.

You would not acquire HPV from normal day to day contact, like personal care of a family member or from a medical procedure - unless something went very wrong. Generally speaking, you wouldn't be touching genitals/mouths in those types of scenarios. There is obviously also the chance that there could have been infidelity, but I wouldn't necessarily say that is the most obvious explanation, though MN tends to jump to that. HPV can hang around a long time and it wouldn't be unusual to have acquired it a long time ago and only now have it picked up due to changes in how testing is done.

And as others have said, the vaccine doesn't 100% eliminate the chance of infection. Just like the flu jab, it can lessen the chance of infection significantly, which is a good thing. It's possible it will also have primed your immune system to recognise and fight off particular strains more effectively.

Listen to @mindutopia OP, they know their sexual health onions. Been giving judgement-free, practical and accurate advice on MN for years. 👍

I'd repeat the smear, mine came back like this and next one was completely normal and everything is normal since then. Is it possible lab is wrong?

I went to a presentation at work about cervical cancer a few months ago and the cancer specialist nurse said that you can develop it during monogamous relationships, it's not a sign someone's been messing around!

Thanks all. Guess I’m just annoyed. I’m actually just very bitter because two of the jabs were on days that I had GCSE exams and one of them they insisted on putting in my right arm and then it went numb and I had to do my GCSE maths paper with my left hand. I ended up getting a B overall when I’d got A* in all the other papers, then I wasn’t allowed to take it for A Level - so I’m just irrationally bitter and furious that I ended up getting the bloody virus anyway 😂Forever haunted by my B in maths.

Onions? 😂

The vaccination is very new and only really effective for children who haven’t been sexually active because adults can have contracted it years ago.

Funnily enough, that’s not a typo.

A man called Mr Onions made it his mission to highlight coin forgeries and raise awareness. He did so by making fake coins and teaching people to know the difference between the real and fake ones. His fake coins became known as “Onions’ coins” and the phrase “know your Onions’” meant to know which coins are real and which are fake. Over time, it came to mean “know your stuff”.

There are over 40 strains of hpv and the vaccine only works against some.

From what I’ve read this is a big consideration of the vaccine. It protects against many strains, notably and obviously the common ones, but not some of the rare ones.

Sorry OP, it’s unlucky and something that sadly isn’t 100% avoidable whatever you do. It’s not fair you’re unlucky,

This has been really informative for me. I think that lots of young women and/or people who have only had 1 partner think that cervical cancer isn't something that can happen to them

and also to be aware that cervical cancer may not show up on a smear. If it’s endocervical ie the other side of the cervix. Any bleeding, painful intercourse etc should always be checked out, especially if it continues after a clear smear.