Positive HPV - long term relationship

[RIRO30]

Hi lovelies
I think I know the answers to all my questions, but just wanted to see if anyone has been through similar

I have 6 month old baby twins! So I’m quite sensitive right now haha emotions and stress are high
me and my partner have been together 9 years, overall a great relationship! Before we have been together we both had multiple sexual partners

I had my smear test at 25 and everything was negative, I’m now 28 and My recent smear has came back positive for HPV but no abnormal cells

Me and my boyfriend done a lot of research and found out it could lay dormant for many years. But of course seems a bit odd my last smear was negative but now this one is positive 😅 I’m sure any women will overthink this haha!!

I didn’t accuse him of anything, after all of our research together to understand HPV, he suggested to book a lie detector to put my mind at ease 🤣 I told him to not be silly.

Just wondering if anyone went through the same, or could reassure me?

This is a pretty common occurrence with the newer more sensitive smear tests, with people being hpv positive after 20+ years with the same committed partner.

I was hpv positive 2 years ago and have been with dh for 30 odd years. It had cleared when I got retested 1 year later.

In the past they didn't test for hpv and just looked for cell changes. Now they test for hpv and only check for cell changes if there's a positive hpv result.

Also likely to be HPV positive if immunosuppressed. And you are in a constant low state of immunosuppression when pregnant.

Just because you've both been together quite a while. I would both have a full STI check.

HPV hasn't always be checked for when you have a smear and the only reason it is now is linked to cancerous cells. One minute you can be positive and the next you are negative. It's not like other STIs.

I had exactly the same. After my 2nd baby, it was all clear.

A high percentage of the population have it, if I remember correctly.

I had this. Didn’t even occur to me that DH had cheated. I mean we work and live together so unless it happened in B&Q I’m not sure when he’d have had the chance 😅

Mine hasn’t cleared after over 3 years. It comes up on every smear test.

HPV is not an STI in the traditional sense, it can lay dormant for years and come out when your immune system isn’t great (and pregnancy will do that to you!!). I had it when I had my first smear test, and then a year later it had gone. No treatment etc it just sort of comes and goes of its own accord!

It remains dormant and then can get triggered. It may have been dormant in your partner and he's passed it on. It is also passed on through non sexual contact, hands, towels etc it's not just sexually transmitted

Hpv, from my understanding from talking to the doctor at my SH clinic has over a hundred different variants; most of these harmless or with unknown symptoms, and a few of them that produce eg warts or more dangerous symptoms like cell abnormalities. These are obviously serious though, can be tested for and can cause serious problems.

She said that basically the only way to avoid hpv in the modern world is to not have sex with other people; most people will carry one variant or the other. Most people will also clear the virus within a few years but this is not always the case.

I don’t know if that is particularly useful but those were her words to me.

As everyone above says. Similar situation to you, I immediately jumped to conclusions about my long term partner!

mine was positive a few months after childbirth too

I asked the nurse if it could be related to childbirth, and my immune system - as I’d just had Covid too and she said yes it definitely could be

Thank you everyone ❤️❤️❤️❤️