I am a male, age 27, in excellent physical condition, I drink a lot of water, take vitamins, eat a balanced diet, I get enough sleep, I work out 5 days/week, I stopped smoking cigarettes (5 cigarettes a day) after I learned I was exposed to high-risk HPV, I rarely ever drink, and I use marijuana regularly. I have been told by doctors that I am in great physical health and that I have a very strong immune system.

I was exposed to high risk HPV on two separate occasions with the same person. The sex was unprotected. The person (female) who exposed me to HPV has had a procedure performed on her (a biopsy?) which was around the time we had sex and I was exposed.

I spoke with 2 doctors about my situation. I made sure they were both female doctors. I asked one of the doctors if she thought I should tell future partners about my exposure to the virus. She said that was a good question, and made things sound like it was a woman's responsibility to ensure that she gets regular pap smears and that if anything abnormal is found then to deal with it early, and that doing this usually prevents any real problems. The other doctor recommended that I drink Mangosteen (no I am not advertising a product) because it is said to boost your immune system. She said that if your immune system is really strong then it can eliminate the virus completely. Both doctors I spoke with said that there might (even with high-risk HPV) be lesions present, one doctor said that if I didn't have lesions then chances were I didn't have the HPV or that it wasn't active, the other seemed to think that my being exposed to high-risk HPV could mean that I contracted low-risk HPV too. I don't have any lesions at this time.

I have considered trying a number of methods to boost my immune system for a period of about 2 months to include a regimen of immune- boosting products, foods, and behaviors (to include abstaining from marijuana use).

Now for my bombardment of questions:

I am at a fork in the road concerning how to deal with my situation. I don't know if I have HPV. Do I assume that I have it? Is it likely that I do have it? What do I tell future partners (please answer without sending me to previous posts) about my situation?

I have considered the idea of telling all future partners that I have been exposed to HPV but that I may not have it.

I have also considered trying to really boost my immune system for an extended period of time, then assume that my body cleared the virus.

I have considered trying to boost my immune system for an extended period of time, and telling future partners that I have been exposed but I have done research on HPV and taken action to increase immune system response (on top of my being in excellent physical condition).

I would like to know what your thoughts are on all this.

-Patrick

Hi Patrick ~

Being exposed to something and actually having it are two different things. Just because you may have been exposed to the possibility of contracting the virus doesn't mean that you did actually contract it. Have you had genital warts show up at all? If you have then you may want to have a doctor take a look to make sure that they are indeed HPV. You almost have to have some type of symptoms in order for a doctor to tell you if you have HPV since it's difficult to test men for this virus.

As far as having a discussion with your future partners, I see nothing wrong with discussing std's before sexual activity. You could even take it one step further and make a date to go and get tested for all STD's. But, if you do that make sure you find out what you are being tested for because not all clinics and doc's offices teste for everything.

Good luck and I hope my response has been helpful to you.

Angela

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Herpes Help

Angela's response has many good points to it. It's difficult to provide specific guidance for you in terms of what you should tell new partners because there is no practical way to determine 1) if you contracted HPV from your former partner or 2) if you did, if the virus is currently active and contagious (more on that later).

Keep in mind that while genital HPV is very common, negative health outcomes related to the virus are not. Even among women with "high-risk" types, most will never have an abnormal Pap test as a result.

When women do in fact have abnormal cell changes detected that are due to "high-risk" HPV, they are usually treatable so that cancer is avoidable. In many cases, mild abnormal cell changes will resolve naturally, so treatment is not always undertaken. The most important thing for a current or future partner to do is to have Pap smears at regular intervals, as directed by her health care provider.

It's important to understand the immune system is thought to assert itself over time and actually reduce the virus to very low levels. When this happens, it isn't clear to researchers if HPV is eliminated completely, or simply at a point where it's undetectable. There is no way to predict when this natural suppression may occur, however, and the virus may be contagious to a new partner in the meantime. Still, HPV does not appear to be persistent in most cases.

Angela's suggestion about a two-way STI discussion is a good one, and talking points to include about HPV include how common the virus is, that is is usually harmless, natural immunity seems able to clear the infection in most cases, and the important thing is for women to have regular Pap tests.

Hope this helps. All the best,
Fredo

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ASHA Moderator

I would definetly talk to future partners about the situation. As embarassing and scary as it may be-- we should get used to talking about sex and possible STD's more.

I had contracted high-risk HPV in a date-rape situation. Now, yes, the body is usually able to clear itself with a strong immune system-- but I was also just diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis 3 years ago and do not have a very strong immune system. The whole situation is still very new, scary, and hard for me to understand completely-- but I do know there is no tests for the high-risk HPV tests for men(unless shown by warts, which usually just proves a low-risk HPV). So, unfortunately exposure may just be as well as being diagnosed-- until we have tests that can show otherwise.

Now, how to go about discussing the issue-- I'm still trying to figure that one out. I'm hoping to clear the infection before ever getting to that point of intimacy in a monogomous relationship-- but I will still inform my partner of the situation.