About 10% of women with
HPV can cause cervical and other cancers, including cancer of the vulva, vagina, penis, or anus. It can also cause cancer in the back of the throat (called oropharyngeal cancer). This can include the base of the tongue and tonsils. Cancer often takes years, even decades, to develop after a person gets HPV.
About 4 out of every 10 cases of cancer caused by HPV occur among men. Every year in the U.S., over 15,000 men get cancers caused by HPV. You can protect your child from these cancers with HPV vaccine at age 11–12 years. Talk to your child's doctor about HPV vaccination.
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.
Most HPV infections go away on their own and don't cause any health problems. However, if HPV does not go away, it can cause health problems like genital warts. It also can cause certain kinds of cancer. We do not know why HPV causes health problems in some people and not others.
Don't panic.
In most cases, your body is able to fight HPV on its own, and the virus will go away without causing any health problems in one or two years.
If you still have HPV after 3 years, you may need to have a colposcopy. You'll be asked to have a colposcopy. Information: HPV is a common virus and most people will get it at some point.
In general, HPV is thought to be responsible for more than 90% of anal and cervical cancers, about 70% of vaginal and vulvar cancers, and 60% of penile cancers.
Having HPV does not mean that a person or their partner is having sex outside the current relationship. There is no treatment to eliminate HPV itself. HPV is usually dealt with by your body's immune system. HPV does not stop you having a normal sex life.
The HPV test can be used alone (primary HPV test) or at the same time as the Pap test (called a co-test). Cervical cancer is most frequently diagnosed in women between the ages of 35 and 44 with the average age at diagnosis being 50. It rarely develops in women younger than 20.
The Cure Rate Is Very High
“If a patient's tumor is HPV-positive, the longterm cure rate for most stages is 80 to 90 percent,” reports Dr. Hu, professor in the Departments of Radiation Oncology and Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery.
Around 90% of HPV infections clear within 2 years. For a small number of women and people with a cervix, their immune system will not be able to get rid of HPV. This is called a persistent infection. A persistent HPV infection causes the cells of the cervix to change.
It takes 15 to 20 years for cervical cancer to develop in women with normal immune systems. It can take only 5 to 10 years in women with weakened immune systems, such as those with untreated HIV infection.
It is usually a slow-growing cancer and if caught early can be successfully treated. Routine Pap smears can detect early changes in the cells of the cervix allowing cervical cancer to be diagnosed early.
Cancer registries do not collect data on the presence or absence of HPV in cancer tissue at the time of diagnosis. In general, HPV is thought to be responsible for more than 90% of anal and cervical cancers, about 70% of vaginal and vulvar cancers, and more than 60% of penile cancers.
How did I get HPV? HPV is a sexually-acquired virus. Even if you were to have sex with a single partner in your life, using condoms every time, there is an 80% chance you will acquire HPV in your lifetime. HPV can be spread by contact between genital skin, so LGBQTI people can also get the virus.
The reactivation risk may increase around age 50. This is dangerous because of HPV's link to head and neck, cervical, vulvar, vaginal, penile and anal cancer. It is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the US. The findings may mean that women need to continue routine screening after age 40.
Those who said they were depressed or believed they had high levels of stress also still had an active HPV infection. HPV usually clears up on its own, but this study is really the first to indicate a link between stress and persistent HPV infection.
HPV can clear up naturally – as there is no cure for the underlying HPV infection, the only way to get rid of HPV is to wait for the immune system to clear the virus naturally.
Cervical cell changes happen slowly. It can take many years for cells infected with HPV to develop into cervical cancer. We have great tools to prevent cervical cancer. Cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination can prevent cervical cancer.
It usually takes years after being infected with HPV for cancer to develop. It is unclear if having HPV alone is enough to cause oropharyngeal cancers, or if other factors (such as smoking or chewing tobacco) interact with HPV to cause these cancers.
If you test positive for HPV and your Pap test is normal, your doctor will most likely recommend that you repeat the Pap and HPV screening exams in one year.
If the HPV test is positive, you may need additional follow-up tests. Atypical glandular cells (AGC): Some glandular cells were found that do not look normal. This can be a sign of a more serious problem up inside the uterus, so your healthcare provider will likely ask you to come back for a colposcopy.
Although most people clear HPV within 2 years, the virus can stay in your body for many years – even decades – without causing any problems. That means you may never know you had it. In some people, HPV can show up on your cervical screening results or start to cause problems years later.