HPV confusion

[Mintcar78]

Hi

I'm hoping someone will be able to clear up some confusion for me please. I have spoken to the nurse at our GP surgery, a friend who is a doctor and done a lot of googling and I can't seem to find a definite answer and everyone seems to be saying different things.

I know it's super common and most people have no serious problems from it, but I still want to get rid of it.

I have been with the same partner for the last 5 years - he is my only partner and I know he had two or three before me but now we are completely monogamous and no concerns re cheating. I had the HPV vaccine at school. So I was a bit shocked to be diagnosed with HPV (no cell changes luckily) when I went for my first smear a year ago. I've just had the results for my second smear and it's exactly the same.

When I went to the second smear I spoke to the nurse about my confusion on if it can ever go away and if my partner and I will basically just pass it back and forth, and she said I've got it for life and it can go dormant and reactivate. However my doctor friend said it can eventually just go away and I can't find a definite answer online.

So my confusion is, are my partner and I destined to just reinfect each other forever? Even though we've presumably got the same strain? Assuming we will stay together and stay monogamous, we will be passing the same strain back and forth, so eventually theoretically I should (hopefully) develop immunity to that strain and therefore get negative smears and not be at risk? Or does it mean that if I get a bit stressed/rundown it can come back, it can go away and then he can reinfect me ie no immunity? I'm confused.

I'd always go to smears in any event. I'm just terrified of getting cancer!

In all honesty, I don’t think it is particularly well understood whether the immune system completely clears the infection or just makes it go dormant for a while or forever. People are normally told that most people clear the infection within 2 years. However, I had an ongoing infection for over 10 years and results which kept swinging between normal and CIN 1 every six months for that entire time, then went from normal to CIN 3 within 6 months. After treatment for the CIN 3, I had a negative hpv test and normal smears. Roll on another 10 years or so and I had a positive hpv test but normal smear. Roll on another six months from that result and it was a negative hpv test again. Monogamous relationship throughout. I am quite certain I have had the exact same hpv infection for about 25 years, but for the latter half of that time it has been dormant - my immune system has never cleared it from my body.

Hi Walkaround, sorry for the delay.

That's really depressing to hear - I am v health conscious so would always go to any smear but it does make me a bit sad to think that it's going to be my life now, always a bit nervous for results. But best to be vigilant and go I guess. Shame that it won't go away.

Thank you for the reply.

@Mintcar78 just keep going for smears etc and you will be fine
Try and put it to the back of your mind. I'm being a hypocrite saying that though as I'm currently stressing myself out for the very same reasons
Going for the test is the easy bit it's the waiting for the result and feeling sick everytime I hear the letter box go that kills me
Just another bloody thing us women have to put up with im afraid

@fedup078 yes exactly the same for me, I'm not bothered at all by the test, it's the waiting and panicking when the post arrives, that's the upsetting part. I've been taking lots of vitamins to boost immunity and getting my partner to take them too in case that helps put it in to dormancy, worth a shot and it can't hurt to take vitamins anyway I guess...Also quite annoyed that I managed to get it considering I had the vaccine, I know it's not perfect but I've only been with my partner...!

Fingers crossed your results are ok!

Well my circumstances mean I must have had hpv for over 15 years.
I always had normal smears until one year ago I was found to have HPV and cell changes.
I've been with my partner over 15 years in a monogamous relationship and prior to the smear we hadn't actually had sex for 3 years due to medical reasons however they found HPV.
I think if my body was able to clear it then it would have managed by now.

I had cells removed about 11 years ago I think and had no issues since until last year which coincided with me having a baby so I think pregnancy lowered my immune system perhaps?
It worries me that some women don't realise that it can lie dormant . I've spoken to a few ppl in rl who thought that because they got a negative hpv result and hadn't changed partners that they didn't need to go for a smear again

@fedup078 - my CIN3 cell changes were picked up straight after I had had 2 pregnancies close together (with a normal smear result immediately before the 2nd pregnancy, so a very rapid development to CIN3 considering they always go on about it taking years to develop!). Prior to that, I’d been having smear tests every 6 months to a year for years, because the cell changes kept swinging to and fro between normal and CIN1, so never enough to treat or look at more closely, just a constant round of smear tests. Having the abnormal cells removed at least stopped the yo-yoing and got me a negative hpv test result. Annoying I got another hpv positive result again 10 years later, but that was negative again very rapidly and I haven’t had any abnormal cells since the first treatment. I don’t get particularly stressed about it any more, now I’ve had years clear of issues, but I think dragging people back for smear tests once or twice a year for 10 years without ever offering to look more closely on a colposcopy to ensure nothing is being missed when the results keep swinging to and fro is seriously stress-inducing!

Also quite annoyed that I managed to get it considering I had the vaccine

I’m the same, as is a friend of mine. Very annoying. I’ve had negative smears since the positive one and I just think the only thing you can do is make sure you don’t put any smear tests off.

@Walkaround it's a nightmare
It makes you wonder how accurate some smears are though. Like you to say to go from normal to CIN3 so quickly
My first ever smear was abnormal and then 6 months later was normal and then 6 months after that I had CIN2 removed. So that 2nd one can't have actually have been 'normal'

@Mintcar78 - try not to get too stressed. The vaccine may help your body clear the virus quickly, or at least suppress it to the point of dormancy, and it can then remain dormant for the rest of your life. Even if still testing positive for hpv, this is no guarantee you will ever get abnormal cell changes and it is unlikely any changes will become cancer (which is why they don’t bother to treat all changes) - and again, I’m sure the vaccine must help with that. I’m too old to have been eligible for the vaccine, and when I first had abnormal changes, hpv tests were a new thing, not offered on the NHS at all, so people were reliant on the far less accurate smears to pick up any potential issues. And finally, if you ever do need treatment for abnormal cells, most people only need to be treated once in their life to stop the changes continuing or returning (and treatment for non-cancerous changes is, whilst not particularly pleasant, normally a simple and quick procedure).

@fedup078 - I’d had so many smear tests by that point, an awful lot of them would have to have been inaccurate! That’s why I would have liked a colposcopy, though, as with that amount of yo-yoing, I couldn’t help wondering if sometimes they were scraping the wrong spot when they took the smears. The thing that irritates me the most is that the response to the smear result just seems to be a standard computer generated response, not an intelligent human one, as I would have thought a normal smear after an abnormal one should start to be treated differently when the previous abnormal result is far from being your first abnormal result!!!

@Walkaround hopefully things have improved regarding procedures now
I'm just resigned to the fact I will end up needing treatment again and I admit that after a decade I did think I was past all this now . I really hope I'm wrong

Let me know how it goes, @fedup078. Hopefully you’ll be fine - my hpv positive result didn’t develop into anything this time around, after all, so the past doesn’t always repeat itself!