HPV Support Group
Human papillomavirus is a diverse group of DNA-based viruses that infect the skin and mucous membranes of humans. More than 100 different human papillomavirus (HPV) types have been characterized. Some HPV types cause benign skin warts, or papillomas, for which the virus family is named. HPVs associated with the development of such "common warts" are transmitted...
I say what follows only with great consideration and love in the hopes that it might help others struggling as I have as I wish this was what someone had said to me at the beginning.
I am a woman in my mid twenties; I contracted HPV GW from my then fianc which I discovered due to my pregnancy. If I had not fallen pregnant within the 2 year period of immune suppression of the virus I would never have known about it. Controversial as it is I feel that a lot of the information online in regards to telling partners is confusing, conflicting and wrong. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DISCLOSE THIS TO FUTURE PARTNERS. I am not saying it is morally right to not tell but its actually not morally or medically wrong . I have spoken to a near overwhelming number of medical professionals and the almost unanimous opinion is that telling is not necessary and actually undesirable. The main problem with this virus is not the physical aspect (which in most cases is not actually that bad and clears within a small number of treatments and is usually not seen again) but actually the psychological effect it has on sufferers. Having gone through this myself I feel its so important that somebody actually says this online. THIS DOES NOT HAVE TO AFFECT YOUR FUTURE ROMANTIC, SEXUAL OR FAMILY LIFE.
Lets be realistic about this almost everyone (80%) sexual active has dormant HPV and has come into contact with the strains that cause warts, in only 1% of people do symptoms ever occur. It is extremely unlikely that you will ever give a partner physical GW especially after treatment. If a partner did have an outbreak there would be no way of knowing whether it came from you as MOST PEOPLE CARRY THIS. Getting physical genital warts is more about bad luck than whether or not your partner has the virus; THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE TIME THE IMMUNE SYSTEM SUPPRESSES THE VIRUS WITHOUT ANY SYMPTOMS EVER OCCURING ACTUALLY REQUIRING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM TO BE LOW ENOUGH WITHIN THE 3 MONTH -1YEAR PERIOD AFTER CONTRACTION THAT IT CAN BECOME ACTIVE TO BECOME SYMPTOMATIC. The rest of your romantic and/or sexual life does not have to be ruined or even affected by this. Get the virus treated, stay healthy and practice safe sex, that is all that you have to do you do not have to go through the psychological torment of thinking you have to tell everyone you are ever attracted to or that youll never be able to love or frankly fuck again. Chances are unless you are having sex with underage partners anyone you date or sleep with will have already come into contact with this. Having seen a psychiatrist because of this I know IT IS PSYCHOLOGICALLY DEVESTATING BUT IT IS ACTUALLY THE COMMON COLD OF STDS AND NOT ACTUALLY THAT BAD.
The idea of disclosing is all well in theory but in practice it puts you at an unnecessary risk, being adult about this you are not going to date for months or years with no sexual contact before becoming comfortable enough to tell a partner. The risk to you is probably bigger than you thing and the risk they will be taking with you is actually minimal and it is one they are taking every time they have sex. Use condoms and avoid unprotected oral and you are doing your part to keep yourself and your partner as safe as possible. It does not make you a bad person not to tell, it makes you a sensible well balanced one. Putting yourself through more hardship relatively pointlessly is never the answer. You have to make the decision whether to be a victim or a survivor and letting this rule your future relationships is making yourself and your potential partners victims.
YOU ARE STILL THE SAME PERSON, THIS DOES NOT HAVE TO TAKE AWAY YOUR SENSUALITY OR YOUR SENSE OF SELF. YOU DESERVE HAPPINESS AND LOVE THE SAME AS EVERYONE ELSE.
I am a woman in my mid twenties; I contracted HPV GW from my then fianc which I discovered due to my pregnancy. If I had not fallen pregnant within the 2 year period of immune suppression of the virus I would never have known about it. Controversial as it is I feel that a lot of the information online in regards to telling partners is confusing, conflicting and wrong. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DISCLOSE THIS TO FUTURE PARTNERS. I am not saying it is morally right to not tell but its actually not morally or medically wrong . I have spoken to a near overwhelming number of medical professionals and the almost unanimous opinion is that telling is not necessary and actually undesirable. The main problem with this virus is not the physical aspect (which in most cases is not actually that bad and clears within a small number of treatments and is usually not seen again) but actually the psychological effect it has on sufferers. Having gone through this myself I feel its so important that somebody actually says this online. THIS DOES NOT HAVE TO AFFECT YOUR FUTURE ROMANTIC, SEXUAL OR FAMILY LIFE.
Lets be realistic about this almost everyone (80%) sexual active has dormant HPV and has come into contact with the strains that cause warts, in only 1% of people do symptoms ever occur. It is extremely unlikely that you will ever give a partner physical GW especially after treatment. If a partner did have an outbreak there would be no way of knowing whether it came from you as MOST PEOPLE CARRY THIS. Getting physical genital warts is more about bad luck than whether or not your partner has the virus; THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE TIME THE IMMUNE SYSTEM SUPPRESSES THE VIRUS WITHOUT ANY SYMPTOMS EVER OCCURING ACTUALLY REQUIRING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM TO BE LOW ENOUGH WITHIN THE 3 MONTH -1YEAR PERIOD AFTER CONTRACTION THAT IT CAN BECOME ACTIVE TO BECOME SYMPTOMATIC. The rest of your romantic and/or sexual life does not have to be ruined or even affected by this. Get the virus treated, stay healthy and practice safe sex, that is all that you have to do you do not have to go through the psychological torment of thinking you have to tell everyone you are ever attracted to or that youll never be able to love or frankly fuck again. Chances are unless you are having sex with underage partners anyone you date or sleep with will have already come into contact with this. Having seen a psychiatrist because of this I know IT IS PSYCHOLOGICALLY DEVESTATING BUT IT IS ACTUALLY THE COMMON COLD OF STDS AND NOT ACTUALLY THAT BAD.
The idea of disclosing is all well in theory but in practice it puts you at an unnecessary risk, being adult about this you are not going to date for months or years with no sexual contact before becoming comfortable enough to tell a partner. The risk to you is probably bigger than you thing and the risk they will be taking with you is actually minimal and it is one they are taking every time they have sex. Use condoms and avoid unprotected oral and you are doing your part to keep yourself and your partner as safe as possible. It does not make you a bad person not to tell, it makes you a sensible well balanced one. Putting yourself through more hardship relatively pointlessly is never the answer. You have to make the decision whether to be a victim or a survivor and letting this rule your future relationships is making yourself and your potential partners victims.
YOU ARE STILL THE SAME PERSON, THIS DOES NOT HAVE TO TAKE AWAY YOUR SENSUALITY OR YOUR SENSE OF SELF. YOU DESERVE HAPPINESS AND LOVE THE SAME AS EVERYONE ELSE.
Addressing both Sportbike and Guiltymommy as for unprotected sex absolutely that is a completely separate issue and this post makes clear you have the obligation to protect partners with contraceptive methods. If you are at a point in a relationship that you are stopping using contraception presumably to have children then I should have thought by that point you would be close enough to a partner to tell them about it so that is a whole different ball game which comes much later on. As for a blowjob without Sportbike you should give up on that idea from here on out there is risks of oral warts and RRP which can kill in extreme cases, you dont want that for yourself or a partner so go out buy some fun flavoured condoms and enjoy.
Now to Asdadtry I am sorry you seem to have an extreme case but this is not the norm. The medical advice given by the experts is that disclosure is not necessary and actually undesirable. There is no need to escalate this to a massive issue that it is simply not and the concept of making it such a huge issue and telling everyone is frankly extremist. As for the woman she may have had it but so does 80% of the population and your doctor will tell you that there is absolutely no way to know whether you caught it from her as it could have been dormant for years. Also think about the implications of what you are saying you would have avoided her, she should give up, stay celibate, have her life ruined and become a pariah? You got an outbreak because sadly your immune system was low and you really need to let go of anger and contempt. I dont hate my ex for giving me this like I have said its more about bad luck and perhaps the reason that your case is so bad is because of stress and anxiety because of the way you view this. The main problem with GW is there psychological effect the physically symptoms are usually barely perceptible and yes usually disappear within a few months of treatment never to return, do not cause pain and have no serious health implications apart from in pregnancy in which case its a simple case of deciding to have an elective section as I did. The only reason that something as minor is actually made into a big deal is because some people choose to view it as you do. It is actually not medically different from warts on your feet that I dont imagine would bother you at tall except it has psychological implications. I really think you need to ease up on yourself.
It seems odd that you say that the risk of passing the virus is virtually zero, or at least immeasurable, but then to say to use condoms. Contraception aside, if you are not contagious what good will a condom due to prevent passing the virus. Either you're contagious or you are not. Like I said earlier my doctor says he has seem more cases of people using condoms and still getting warts. I have no idea if those people were having an active outbreak or not. Condoms would offer a layer of protection if you are having an outbreak but if you are not then what good would it serve?
I am not promoting not using condoms, I am just asking these questions based off of this scenerio we are talking about. Ultimately it seems to me there is one big question everyone wants the answer to when it comes to genital warts. How contagious am I? All other questions seem to branch off from this one question. I appreciate you post and everyone's replys on this topic. It is really hard to find the right answer with so many differing doctors opinions and viewpoints.
As for condoms no they do not prevent genital warts. Genital warts are not serious. However having HPV puts you at greater risk of contracting all the other stds that a condom will prevent, HIV, Chlamydia, syphilis, gonorrhoea, MC etc. Also cervical strains of HPV are serious and most people are never tested for them so it is important to protect yourself and future partners. Condoms are actually to a greater extent to prevent you from more serious stds than to stop your partners getting GW. Also warts on your shaft basically rubbing against the wall of your partners vagina or anus can spread GW up there and internally they can be more problematic. And obviously until doctors start doing routine blood tests with full genome cultures every time patients switch sexual partners to identify exactly what strains of HPV and other viruses they do and do not have condoms are always going to be the safest bet and unless you and your partner could be certain you had never come into contact with the GW virus or even worse HSV why risk unprotected oral? Genital warts are usually not at tall serious genitally but orally it can be incredibly serious and it's not worth it. Hope that helps a little. xx
As far as 80% of the population having this I have seen that number before, but as for only 1% showing symptoms I too have seen that. However I do not believe the 1% statement. Personally I think that number is much higher but that most people do not go to the doctor when they see something, or their warts go away over time so they still don't go to a doctor, or they go to a doctor but are misdiagnosed.
As far as condoms go my discussion was about genital warts and condoms. Not other stds. I have seen the statement that if you have hpv you are more at risk for other stds. Really? How? In general the belief is that if you are so promiscuous as to get hpv then you must have other stuff. Or that if you got hpv your immune system is so weak you must have other stuff. Both of these seem to be generalities and not necessarily truth.
You are right that there are other strains that can be more serious but being a guy living in the US there are no tests that can be done to check. So the strains that cause cervical cancer, penile cancer, head and neck cancer, etc there are no tests for guys.
As far as condoms go, yes they do protect us from other stds and they could protect my partner from genital warts but like I said in earlier posts my comments were geared towards someone not having warts present. Also according to the doctors I talked with it is possible to get anal warts but to have not have had anal sex. It is not as common but they have seen it. The warts can appear anywhere in your genital region.
You are right that oral warts can be serious. This is not always the case however and it is believed that oral cancer due to hpv has a better chance of successful treatment than oral cancers from smoking and/or drinking. Something about the cells don't mutate as much or something like that if I recall.
Either way that is a few of my viewpoints. I enjoy the discussion.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_Services/Health_Education/sexual_health/sexually_transmitted_infections/hpv.php), about 1% of sexually active adults in the US have genital warts at any given time. 1%. Not 80%. HPV effects anywhere from 50%-75% and thats the non symptom strains which are a much different emotional experience. I've seen 4 doctors including a specialist on this, the last doctor I visited informed me that genital warts almost never clear on their own, once you've gotten treatment the body can fight off the remaining traces in your system. Your body will will almost never eliminate the warts by itself. All 4 doctors have advised me to disclose to my partners, I can't imagine you've actually seen a doctor who told you to withhold this kind of information from your future partners. Third of all, I got it from a woman because I was coming off a major surgery when we became sexually active and my immune system was low due to antibiotics and stress. She didn't tell me she had it so I couldn't make that decision for myself. If I had known she had it, I would have waited. I would have still dated her, but I would have approached sex a little differently and been more careful. I said nothing of her " having her life ruined and becoming a pariah", I don't know where you got that.
I think you're missing my overall point. This isn't about abstaining from sex entirely, this is about honesty and integrity. It wasn't the genital warts or HPV that upset me, it was the fact that I didn't get a choice in deciding what happened to my own body. When you don't tell other people, you make that choice for them and thats a shitty thing to do to someone. If you have a disease that will cause physical changes to the body of someone else, you should tell them. Its the honorable thing to do, and I don't think you can have real intimacy with someone if you're too afraid to tell them about your condition. And if its a numbers game, wheres the limit? Herpes is now 1 in 6 people, is it ok for someone with herpes to spread it to others without telling them? How would you feel if someone did that to you? This isn't a massive issue, but its big enough to warrant having a conversation about it with someone who might be coming in contact with it. Especially if its someone who you're close enough to have sex with.