How can I have an sti?

[Atetherainbow]

I had a Pap smear a half year ago. I didn’t have an STI. Since then, I’ve had one sexual partner. I dated a man in his fifties, quite a bit older than me, who ended up having a lot of trouble getting it up and so we didn’t have much piv sex. When we did, it was always with a condom. I just had a new Pap smear and it came back positive for an STI. I’m completely floored. How is this possible?

So you tested positive for HPV? It can be spread through skin to skin contact, ie the bits the condom doesn't cover. I'm sorry this has happened to you

HPV can lie dormant for years, so as well as the skin to skin contact, it could have just been hanging around inactive.

I was HPV positive at my last smear, having not been at previous smears - I did have a point in my 30s where I was going through annual smears because of borderline cell changes. I don't know if that was HPV because they didn't test for it then, so I don't know if this is a flare up of a 20+ year infection or a new infection and it doesn't really matter, because the treatment is the same. So I'll be getting annual smears rather than the 5 yearly ones I would have switched to because of age.

No it wasn’t hpv. It was another STI that’s treatable with antibiotics. In my frantic state taking the call at work I didn’t write anything down. I did ask the doctor if it could have been dormant for a while and she said she doesn’t think so. I also asked if it could be spread with a condom and she said it depends how close to the groin it is. What does that even mean?

HPV can lay dormant for decades . So it can reactivate , happened to me. You won’t know who you caught it off unless you’ve only ever had 1 sexual partner . Some women married 30+ years find they suddenly test positive when menopause knocks their immune system off kilter. Pregnancy reactivated mine after a decade.

Oh crossed post. You mustn’t be in the uk if they test for other sti’s on a smear . We don’t tend to call them Pap smears either so that was a clue . Condoms aren’t 100% but at least it’s one you can easily get rid of. Unlike HPV

What STI is it?

An interesting! I’m in the US

Mydoplasma genitalium

I hadn’t actually heard of this one. I think it’s likely to have been transmitted when you’ve had skin to skin contact, despite using a contact there will have be contact.

That’s the only possible conclusion, I’d think. Unless it sat dormant which the doctor didn’t think it would. I have no symptoms. I wonder if it’s possibly a false positive? I am having a hard time processing this.

https://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/mycoplasma-genitalium

Doesn't require PIV sex as it's linked to the urethra so other activities can transmit it.

Thank you! I feel better knowing/understanding.

Hi @Atetherainbow - I’m based in the UK so obviously our guidelines are v different. Mycoplasma genitalium (MGen) is a relatively new organism that can be found incidentally - For example we all have bacteria on our skin and if we all swabbed our skin most of us would test positive for staph aureus but that bacteria is not causing an infection so most of us do not have red/ hot / blistered and painful skin because of it.

in the same way if you swabbed lots of women / or men that had no symptoms you may find MGen. It does not always cause infection ( so it’s not like chlamydia that does cause infection without any symptoms) it can self clear and here in the UK our guidelines are to not test for it unless there are very specific symptoms - pain during sex/ bleeding after sex in women and pain whilst passing urine in men or rectal symptoms if anal sex has occured so as to prevent unnecessary exposure to antibiotics (and also to avoid situations like this where once you’ve found an organism which could be causing infection you have to kind of act on it and then do contact tracing which can cause anxiety / distrust in a relationship when it could be completely incidental)

I completely appreciate guidelines and management over there are different so speak to your health care provider about it.

the first link is a patient information leaflet and the second one is a link for professionals in the UK - hopefully that helps.

https://www.bashh.org/_userfiles/pages/files/resources/mgen_pil_digital_p2_2019.pdf

https://www.bashh.org/resources/19/mycoplasma_genitalium_2018/

Thank you for this, it’s massively helpful. I’ve never heard of it before and had no symptoms and definitely my first assumption was it was given to me by the one man I was with during this period.

Ofc there may be a reason why MGen is routinely tested for where you are - perhaps the incidence of actual infection is much higher there and therefore it is tested for and treated more aggressively. They will give you details on what they want to do regarding contact tracing. Here we only ask patients to inform current partners or partners they’re planning on having sex with again so they can have treatment really as a precaution against re-infection by the same person. I hope you have some swift and kind treatment and have forgotten all about it next week x

Thank you so much. I will talk to my doctor.