So in 2016, shortly after my eldest son was born, I had a smear test that resulted in high grade dyskaryosis (moderate). This was the first time in my life that I had had anything wrong on a smear. I had a LLETZ procedure early 2017 to remove the cells. Six months later I had another smear which came back normal with no abnormalities and I was HPV negative. Due to these results, I was put on a 3 yearly routine of smear tests.
However, last September I had my second son and wanted another smear to see if any problems had returned. I always thought it strange that these problems first arose shortly after my eldest son was born and did wonder if pregnancy affected my immune system to the point that the HPV took hold. So last week I went for a smear test privately (as I wasn’t due to be recalled on the NHS for another year). My results came back saying I am HPV positive again for high risk strain/s, but no abnormal cells have been found in my sample. I think I’m now due to have yearly smears again.
Has anyone been told that pregnancy can cause HPV to become re-activated? What are the chances of my body fighting the HPV and making it dormant again? I’m worried that my body might have trouble fighting the virus as last time I had a pregnancy I had high grade (moderate) changes afterwards. Could that just have been because of pregnancy and a weaker immune system?
The private doctor also suggested me and my husband have the HPV vaccine despite us clearly already having HPV. He said some evidence suggests the vaccine can kickstart your immune system and help it to fight existing HPV infections. Has anyone heard of this or had the vaccine for this? Did it work? I’m terrified I’m going to keep having problems until I eventually get cancer and the doctors haven’t been very reassuring so far
