Help - sex question - link between warts / HPV / cervical cancer?

[Belgrano]

This is going to sound really daft but I've been with DH for 7 years and only just started to question this. He is lovely and very responsible and when we got together was honest about having had genital warts in the past. However he said he had none at the time, and if and when he had a flare-up and got some warts again, we would have to use condoms till they went away (or not have sex, obv!). He had been told that as long as he had no current warts at any given time, then I could not catch the virus or the warts from him.

Since then he has never had another attack of them, so it hasn't been an issue. He checks regularly.

However, after a 'borderline changes' smear test shock last summer I've just got to thinking - does this mean he carries HPV and I could catch it, ie. is what he told me correct or not? I am negative for HPV at the moment (they checked when I got my borderline changes result and said that since I was negative for HPV, the borderline result was nothing to worry about).

I am also pregnant though, so we aren't using condoms at the mo. I can't get my head around this 'only a risk if he has warts at the time' thing. Surely he carries the virus all the time?

I only get smeared every 3 yrs so they wouldn't necessarily pick it up till 2011 if I caught it in this pregnancy.
Anyone fully understand this warts/cancer/HPV link?
Thanks if you can help and sorry to bang on!

This should help to clarify things for you.

You need to scroll down a bit for the info about warts and HPV.

Thanks. That basically says that i can still catch it if he has no symptoms - ie no warts at the time. So what he was told 7 yrs ago was wrong. . Might find out about that paid for vaccine against HPV.

It says that the HPV virus that causes actual warts is not linked to cervical cancer though

HPV is very common in the environment and causes all sorts of warts, including veruccas.

I don't think it is the same HPV that is linked to cervical cancer.

There are different types of HPV and the ones that cause cancer don't cause warts.

You can only get HPV vaccine before you are sexually active, because it is not a good thing to have it if you are already infected with it. That is why it is targeted to pre-pubescent girls.

In your place, I would push for another smear test several months after the birth. Pregnancy hormones encourage growth of all tissue, abnormal/precancerous among them (which is why your moles grow during pregnancy)