So I have just had my smear result. No abnormal cells but high risk HPV Positive
My question is (if anyone can help)
I was tested for this in 2015 and I was negative. My partner had sexual contact with someone else in 2016.
Does this mean he has caught it and passed it to me?
Hi!
There’s really no way to know for sure that’s how you contracted HPV as it can lay dormant for many many years before becoming “active” so to speak and therefore showing up on your smear.
I would say the only way to know for sure that was logical was if you were not sexually active at your last smear and have since slept with your partner and are now showing positive for HPV. Meaning he had exposed you. If that makes sense?
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I think with HPV it’s very difficult to say at what point you picked it up. To answer your question, yes, it’s possible but it’s also possible that it’s been lying dormant and at the time of testing it didn’t show up. Sometimes it flares up again when our immune systems are low. I’m only just learning about this but I’m 42, my husband is my only sexual partner and we’ve been together over 20 years yet I still tested HPV positive.
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There’s no way to know this at all and you really shouldn’t think of it in that way because it only adds to the distress of going through something unfamiliar.
You could have previously had it, but it was just never picked up by a test as it can lie dormant for years. It doesn’t even take full sex to pass it on and no contraception is an effective barrier, so either of you could have been first infected even when fairly young. Thinking of it in terms of blame though isn’t the way to go.
My consultant firmly, but kindly, told me to put that right out of my head and not give HPV a second thought other than to let it show why it’s so important to engage with screening programmes designed to keep people safe.
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Thanks for all your replies. You have helped me put my mind at rest.
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