Although most will never know it, four out of five women are likely to be infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) at some point in their lives. Using a condom doesn’t always protect your wellbeing against HPV, which is a major concern – not just to your sexual health, but to your overall wellness. HPV is the cause of virtually every case of cervical cancer, and yet a woman who finds out she has an HPV infection is not likely to tell even her closest friends. But why?
As HPV is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) there is a certain amount of social stigma attached to it, meaning that women would rather keep schtum than get help. However, having HPV is a lot more normal than you may think, so there’s no real reason to stay silent. Plus, knowing your HPV status can help you identify your risk of cervical cancer – which is highly preventable if caught in time. Usually, the virus is harmless, with most of the 6 million new cases of HPV in the United States each year clearing up on their own. If you have HPV, it does not mean that you have had a lot of partners, although having multiple partners does increase your risk. However, unless you have been vaccinated, it’s quite likely that you will get a HPV. A study of women with just one partner found that 50% had HPV infections three years into their monogamous relationships.
That is not to say that having HPV means you have been unfaithful. There is a good chance that you could have contracted the virus years or even decades ago, but the HPV has been hiding out in your system before developing into changes in cervical cells. There are plenty of stories from couples who have been married for 10 or 20 years and found themselves upended by HPV. It is impossible to know when and where you have contracted the disease, so don’t jump to relationship-rattling conclusions. You don’t even need to have sex to transmit HPV; the virus can be transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, meaning that contact with the hands and oral sex can also spread the infection.
You may be worried about letting your teenagers have the HPV vaccination because it opens them up to the idea that they are about to have sex. However, getting the HPV vaccine isn’t about sex; it’s about cancer. The reason why it’s given to young people is to ensure they are vaccinated well in advance of their first sexual encounter, which, for some kids, can be age 13. Moreover, the body’s antibody responses are highest between the ages of nine and 15, which means the vaccine is at its most effective during that window. There are four HPV types that are responsible for 70% of cervical cancers and 90 percent of genital warts, and the current vaccines, which are recommended for young girls and boys, protect against all of them.
We cannot ignore HPV, in spite of the stigma attached. If more people were to turn to the vaccination, we might soon speak about the virus in the same way we do about polio or smallpox. However, letting HPV reign in our lives can be life-threatening. While most infections go away without any treatment, some infections with specific types of HPV can persist and develop into cervical cancer over years or even decades. Therefore, there are many good reasons why you need to talk about HPV – and schedule your annual OB/GYN exam if you haven’t done so yet.
