I was recently diagnosed first w/HPV+ then after colposcopy that I have a 4cm mass on my cervix. After over 7 yrs abstinence(no sex) and 6 yrs being married to my current husband, I’m thinking HOV what?! why now? Trying to figure out what I missed I backtracked my steps to March 31 this year when I was required by work to get a series of healthcare related vaccinations including Covid booster vaccine. About 2 wks later(mid-April) is when my post meno bleeding started,( I’m 52). At the time I thought “maybe I’m not in menopause…then the bleeding never stopped into June when I saw a gynecologist. My last pap was 5 yrs ago that was normal. I was told I am hpv +, and was sent to get a colposcopy. Everything happened so fast and now I’m still to figure out how or when hpv got into me. Is it very possible that this virus stayed dormant for over a decade? Did my last Pap smear five years ago completely missed it? Could the recent vaccination trigger a response and wake up a dormant virus? One thing for sure is that I didn’t get hpv the last 7-12 yrs. This is so weird, I haven’t had many partners b4 my marriage so my question is why now? Can hpv and related cancers lay dormant for decades and one day rear it’s ugly head like it is now? I’m focused on treatment now but a part of me wants to make sense of it’s origin. Does anyone have experience with hpv taking over a decade to start causing problems? I’ve kept this in the rear of my treatment so far but I’m having a hard time figuring out what may have happened.
Unfortunately it is very difficult to answer these questions “why”. Looking myself I would say it is bad luck. I don’t know the type of Cc you have but adenocarcinoma usually starts higher in the cervix and might be missed during a smear test. I had up to date smear tests and from clean with no HPV I ended up with stage 2 so it can happen.
@Tinabae this is all new to me too, I was with the same partner for 24yrs and then with my current partner for 3yrs when I was found to be HPV+, this confused me too but I now know HPV can lie dormant in our bodies for a really long time and that statistics show that most of us will have it at some point during our lifetime. I believe too it’s just bad luck, most people will be able to clear HPV on their own but there’s always the chance we won’t be able to.
