I wondered if anyone had come across anything similar?
I’ve been with husband 27 years. Last March I tested positive for HPV at my smear for the very first time no cell changes though. This was the first time I had been tested for HPV as I live in Scotland and all previous smears were normal.
Neither my husband nor I has been with anyone else in all these years so it had obviously been there a very long time. I’m 51.
I was beside myself with worry so I took a Superdrug home test 4 months later in July, followed by another in October then another one last week. All of these tests have been negative for all types of HPV.
I will be due another smear test in March but my questions are;
Is it possible all 3 home HPV tests were wrong even though I followed the instructions exactly?
Could HPV have reactivated last March somehow after all these years and then went back to a dormant state again?
Or were my smear test results inaccurate last March and I never had HPV given that I have never had abnormal cells and it’s all very strange why HPV would decide to activate last March?
It’s not possible to know for sure but perhaps the NHS test picked up a strain that is not tested for by Superdrug. Might also be an old infection that has reactivated and cleared again like you said. Hopefully your next smear is reassuring!
I also tested positive for HPV no cell changes.Got the results Jan 2024.Im 65, always had normal smears. I’m sick with worry.The Superdrug test kit sounds like something I will do.Did it tell you which strain you have?
Hi Laney
That all does sound strange! You said you were due your next smear in March, have you had this?
I believe the Superdrug test does test for the same strains as most of the NHS tests but there are several tests approved by the NHS and maybe it differs between regions.
I have seen ladies on here with both sides
Some testing positive on NHS and negative on home test and some negative on NHS but positive on home test.
I think there is so much doctors and researchers still don’t know about HPV activation/deactivation and dormancy! X
Hi Skyla
If I recall correctly the Superdrug test will tell you if your positive or negative individually for strains 16 and 18 and the positive/negative for the group of other high risk strains
For example if you were positive for type 52 it would just say ‘positive for high risk other’
Hope that helps x
Yes, I had my NHS smear on 18 March and it only took 11 days for my result which took 11 weeks last year! Not sure if that’s due to being HPV positive last year so they then checked my cells or some other delay. Anyway my recent smear result came back as HPV negative so next smear is now in 5 years time.
I just find the whole thing very odd as have always had normal results and does make me wonder if last years smear was inaccurate
Perhaps your HPV test when you had the positive result was contaminated by something? That or your immune system seems to have had just one off day before pushing HPV back where it needs to go. Congrats! X
