Michelle Anderson

HPV testing for women Many doctors will argue that testing for HPV is an art, not a science. This simply means that there is no precise, one hundred percent accurate way to test for HPV. The most common symptoms of HPV, being warts, are generally easy to identify.

Looking for some quick HPV statistics? Alright, let’s cut to the chase. We’ll lay out some of the most important details regarding human papilloma virus in an easy to read Q&A format. How likely am I to catch HPV? You are probably going to contract HPV and spread it on to someone else at some point in your life. It’s estimated that over 90% of people contract HPV at some point or another. The good news is that this is no big deal.

There is no magic diet, no special fruit or vegetable that will make you impervious to HPV. There’s no way to reduce risk of contracting HPV by 100%, as even the HPV vaccine only protects against the high risk forms that can lead to cancer and so on.

To eliminate any possibility of misunderstanding right off the bat: Smoking does not cause HPV, and it does not increase your likelihood of contracting HPV (at least, not anymore than it increases your likelihood of contracting any other disease). The main reason you shouldn’t smoke is now and always has been and always will be the possibility of lung cancer. However, there is a link between HPV and smoking cigarettes.

Anogenital warts are a commonly misunderstood disease. Caused by Human papilloma virus types 6, 11, 42, 43, 44 and 55, among others, anogenital warts, sometimes simply called genital warts, are a type of genital HPV, but are only one small subsection of genital HPV. Other types of genital HPV may lead to genital cancers, such as cervical cancer, while others may lead to no symptoms whatsoever. Luckily, the types that lead to anogenital warts do not lead to cancer.

HPV isn’t just one condition or one disease. Human Papillomavirus spreads across a wide range of different infection types. The good news is that the most common types are easily treatable, and that many of the least common types tend to be essentially harmless, showing no actually symptoms. For the purposes of this article, we’ll only focus on the types you need to be concerned about. These include the various HPV types that do show symptoms in the form of warts.

Here is one of the simple truths of love and sex in the modern world: You need to be willing to have frank, open discussions with your partner about all matters relating to sex. To put it bluntly, it’s not the 1950’s anymore, and it’s not a great idea to be shy or ashamed when it comes to talking to your partner about sex. If you’re a little bashful about it, remember, they talk about this stuff on daytime TV, so why be embarrassed over talking about it with the person you take to bed?

Women, get a pap smear and an HPV test at your next opportunity. Do not put it off or deem it unnecessary. Sorry if we seem a bit militant on this front. All men have to worry about when it comes to HPV is the problem of dealing with an ugly infection. In women, HPV can be fatal. It is estimated that cervical cancer affects 473,000 women every year, killing 253,500 women. Most of these cases are directly linked with genital HPV.

One of the first things you need to know about HPV testing for men… is that you need to be tested before you can be certain. If you have any degree of sexual experience, getting tested is a good idea. You can’t just inspect yourself, trust that you don’t have anything, and forget about it. HPV can remain dormant for years, decades, even a lifetime without showing any symptoms, but can still be contagious.

You’ve probably contracted HPV at some point in your life. In fact, there’s a good chance you’ve contracted genital HPV, too. Shocked? Don’t be. More than half of all adults have had “common warts” at one point or other, warts that affect the hands, feet, elbows or knees. That’s why they call them common warts. They’re uncomfortable, but they’re really no big deal. As for genital HPV, believe it or not, there are actually several types of HPV that affect the genitals, but which do not lead to wa