Human Papillomavirus Denver CO

1. It is estimated that as many as 75 percent of the reproductive-age population has been infected with one or more types of sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV), and up to 6.2 million new infections occur each year.

2. Most HPV infections have no symptoms and are hard to identify. Warts are caused by low-risk strains of the virus and can be flesh-colored and hidden inside the cervix, vagina or anus. They can be small or large, alone or in clusters, flat or round. They can spread along the groin or thigh or be found in the mouth. High- risk cancer-causing strains of HPV cause no symptoms and are detected by an abnormal Pap test or the HPV test.

3. HPV infection is a direct cause of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer was once one of the most common causes of cancer death for American women, but is now one of the most preventable, with fatality rates dropping because of early detection and treatment.

4. In the vast majority of cases, the body's immune system clears the infection within two years. Because the virus travels to lower-level tissues where it may remain indefinitely, researchers don't know if the virus is completely eliminated or just suppressed to such a low level that it's hard to detect with routine screening. However women who test negative for the high-risk strains of HPV using the HPV test have almost no chance of developing serious cell changes in the near future. This can provide tremendous peace of mind.

5. Women who are 30 and older who have persistent HPV infection are more likely to have the cancer-causing, or high-risk, types of HPV, and if they test positive for HPV two times in a row, will require further testing even if their Pap test is normal.

6. In conjunction with the Pap test, the HPV test can be used in women over age 30 to help detect HPV infection. When combined with a Pap test in women of this age group, the HPV test is better at identifying women at risk for developing cervical cancer than the Pap test alone.

7. It is important that you work with your health care professional to determine which HPV treatment (whether for low-risk HPV causing genital warts or for high-risk HPV causing dysplasia) is most appropriate for you.

8. Because HPV is so common, and it is impossible to determine when someone was infected, notifying a partner of a prior HPV infection is not considered mandatory. A patient with an active infection with genital warts, however, should use protection and notify a partner, who may choose to forego sex because the condom isn't completely protective, and the genital wart virus is highly infectious.

9. Genital warts are uncommon in children. When they occur, they are most often the result of sexual abuse.

For the rest of this article, questions to ask your health care professional, information on diagnosis, treatment, prevention and more, click here.

Author: Editorial Staff of the National Women's Health Resource Center