You can get HPV if you have vaginal, anal, or oral sex with a person who has the virus. Most often, it spreads during vaginal or anal sex. It also spreads through direct skin-to-skin contact during sexual intercourse. A person with HPV can transmit the infection to another person even if they have no signs or symptoms.
HPV infection is a viral infection that usually causes growths on the skin or mucous membranes (warts). There are more than 100 varieties of human papillomavirus (HPV). Some types of HPV infection cause warts and others can cause different types of cancer. Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the United States.
About 80% of women will get at least one type of HPV at some point in their lives. 1 It usually spreads through vaginal, oral, or anal sex. Many women don't know they have HPV because it usually doesn't have symptoms and it usually goes away on its own. Some types of HPV can cause diseases such as genital warts or cervical cancer.
There is a vaccine to help prevent HPV. It is the most common sexually transmitted infection. HPV is usually harmless and goes away on its own, but some types can cause cancer or genital warts. Genital HPV spreads through contact (contact) with the skin of a person who has an HPV infection.
Contact includes vaginal, anal and oral sex. Some types of HPV cause genital warts, which are hard, rough bumps that grow on the skin. Anyone who is sexually active can get HPV and genital warts. Although HPV causes cervical cancer, the risk of developing cervical cancer from the virus is still quite low.
In fact, about 70 to 90 percent of cases of HPV infection are eliminated from the body by the immune system. Low-risk HPV rarely develops into cancer, but can cause symptoms, such as genital warts, around the genitals and anus. Learn more about recommended doses of HPV vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, just because a woman has HPV or cervical dysplasia doesn't necessarily mean she will have cervical cancer.
One of the biggest but least known dangers of HPV involves the risk of head and neck cancer, as HPV spreads to the throat through oral sex. However, WHO suggests that self-collected samples can be used when testing HPV DNA (this does not apply to HPV mRNA testing). Most people with HPV don't have symptoms and feel totally fine, so they don't usually even know they're infected. If HPV doesn't go away on its own, there are treatments for genital warts and cervical cell changes caused by HPV.
If a woman tests positive for high-risk types of HPV, her health care provider will perform Pap smears more often to look for any changes in the cells that may be precancerous or need treatment. Warts aren't fun, but they're considered low-risk HPV because they don't cause cancer or other serious health problems. Almost all cervical cancers are caused by HPV infections, but cervical cancer can take 20 years or more to develop after an HPV infection. Genital HPV infections are contracted through sexual intercourse, anal sex, and other skin-to-skin contact in the genital region.
Although most HPV infections go away on their own and most precancerous lesions resolve spontaneously, all women are at risk that HPV infection will become chronic and that precancerous lesions may develop into invasive cervical cancer. Women over the age of 65 can stop having the test if they have had three normal Pap smears in a row or two DNA and HPV Pap tests without abnormal results Talk to your partner about your sexual history before having sex and ask your doctor about the possibility of having an test if you have symptoms of HPV. .
