Yes, high-risk HPV often goes away as the immune system clears it within a couple of years, but it can also become a persistent infection, which is when it poses a cancer risk by causing cell changes that might become cancerous over time, making regular screenings crucial for early detection and management.
You may test positive, return for a retest a few years later, and test negative. This means that your body has successfully fought off the infection. Or you may test negative, return for a retest five years later, and test positive after exposure to the virus. HPV is incredibly common.
One of the challenges with HPV-related cancers is that they may not present symptoms until the disease has progressed. However, there are certain signs to watch for, including persistent sore throat, difficulty swallowing, ear pain and a lump or mass in the neck.
There's no cure for HPV but most of the time our body's immune system does the job and clears up the infection by itself before it's done any harm. It's only when certain types, or strains, of HPV can't be cleared up by our body that damage can happen to our cells.
A lot of my patients are confused and afraid when they test positive for high-risk strains. As an ob-gyn, here is what I share with them. Having HPV does not mean that you have or will develop cancer. It takes many years for HPV infection to cause cell changes that develop into cancer.
HPV Very Rarely Becomes Cervical Cancer
While HPV does cause cervical cancer, the risk of developing cervical cancer from the virus is still quite low. For 90 percent of women with HPV, the condition will clear up on its own within two years.
How is HPV spread? HPV is a sexually transmitted infection – meaning it can be spread through vaginal, anal, and oral sex. HPV is also spread very easily through prolonged intimate skin-to-skin contact, which means that HPV can be transmitted during non-penetrative sex such as hand-to-genital contact.
Natural history studies of HPV show that 60% of sexually active people will be infected with at least one high-risk HPV during their lifetime[11]. Most of these infections are eliminated by the immune system in about 1 or 2 years from exposure[12].
Symptoms
Given that there's no treatment for high-risk HPV, follow-up care after a positive HPV test has one goal: To mitigate your cervical cancer risk as much as possible.
Most cases of HPV infection tend to be cleared by the immune system without intervention 1–2 years post-exposure; it is thought that persistent infection is most likely due to a lack of HPV-specific T-cell immunity [74].
HPV does not usually cause any symptoms. Most people who have it do not realise and do not have any problems.
Discharge, itching, burning, fissures and dyspareunia were typical symptoms. Discharge was more frequent in women with vaginal localization of the HPV infection, whereas itching and burning were the predominant complaint when the HPV lesions were present on the vulva.
There are about 12 types of high-risk HPV, but HPV types 16 and 18 cause most HPV-related cancers. High-risk HPV is transmitted through intimate skin-to-skin contact, most often during vaginal, anal, or oral sex.
Leaving the cervix behind means there's still a small risk of developing cervical cancer, especially if you have a history of HPV or cervical dysplasia. If you've struggled with endometriosis or severe pelvic pain, keeping the cervix may not relieve your symptoms.
If you test positive for HPV and your Pap test is normal, your doctor will most likely recommend repeating the Pap and HPV screening exams in one year. If your second HPV test comes back negative, continue regular Pap and HPV tests. If your second HPV test comes back positive, your doctor may recommend a colposcopy.
HPV that affects your genitals doesn't usually cause symptoms. When symptoms do occur, the most common sign of the virus is warts in your genital area. Genital warts are rough, cauliflower-like lumps that grow on your skin. They may also appear like skin tags.
The women, as participants in the study, reported physical and emotional changes in their lives related to HPV infection. In the physical changes, abdominal pain (cramps) and genitalia pain were evidenced.
The putative stages, in cervical cytology, are atypical glandular cells (AGC), adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS), and Adenocarcinoma.
If we determine you have a high-risk strain of HPV, that doesn't mean you have cancer, and it doesn't even mean you will develop cancer in the future. Instead, it means you should take certain steps to monitor your health to reduce your risk of potential complications.
Although there is a strong link between HPV infection and cervical cancer, only 10%–20% of women display a persistent infection prerequisite for cervical carcinogenesis. About 80%–90% of HPV infections are transient and clear spontaneously within 24 months after first detection.
Across 4 studies (1,130 women), folate and Vitamin B12 showed protective role in reducing HPV persistence and CIN progression, with favorable effects on DNA methylation and viral clearance (SMD = 0.80 [0.65, 0.95]; p < 0.00001; I2 = 0%; GRADE: High).
Chlamydia trachomatis and human papilloma virus (HPV) are the two most common sexually transmitted infections among women. HPV infection can increase the risk of cervical cancer and infertility while C. trachomatis induces pelvic inflammatory disease.
Sometimes, after several negative HPV tests, a woman may have a positive HPV test result. This is not necessarily a sign of a new HPV infection. Sometimes an HPV infection can become active again after many years. Some other viruses behave this way.
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted infection. More than 90 percent of sexually active men and 80 percent of sexually active women will be infected with HPV in their lifetime. Around 50 percent of HPV infections involve certain high-risk types of HPV, which can cause cancer.