I am 38 and contracted HPV vaginally about 15 years ago. They were cleared very easily(1 treatment) and have not returned. All of my annual paps have come out normal. I have been married 10 yrs and we are both clear.
This winter I got a case of whooping cough and many other colds from my 4yr old who is now in pre-K. This is not a big surprise. In getting all of these colds and coughs my throat became very swollen at times and I started to feel a scratching sensation on the back of my throat. This brought to my attention some very difficult to see bumps(warts) on the very back of my tongue.
In my panic I realized that they might have been there for the last 15 yrs. I jumped on the internet and found out as much info that I possibly could. I would like to know what the treatment is and if I need to go to a specialist and if so what type. My gynocologist is not available until the end of April and I feel like I shouldn't wait.
I would also like to know the extent of the complications that can come from having this for so long. I have not had a sore throat(very healthy) in the last 15 yrs. Now it seems I have a mild sore throat almost every day and I am not sure if it is from all of the colds or if it is from the HPV. I am very concerned!

Your primary care provider should be able to help you sort that out. I can't speculate as to what is causing the bumps, of course, but can tell you that what you're describing is very uncharacteristic of HPV. "Genital" HPV types are much less prone to set up shop in oral tissue and cause visible symptoms.

If you don't mind following up and letting us know what you find out, we'd love to hear from you again.

Best,
Fredo

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ASHA Moderator

I may be able to offer some temporary info to help reduce your worry until you can get to a doctor... even if it does involve a bit of an embarassing story for me. One day I too noticed some seemingly huge bumps on the back of my tongue when I was obsessively checking for signs of HPV. They were so far back my tongue hurt the next day because I was sticking it out so far. I was convinced I had warts and scheduled an appointment with my doctor. During my subsequent internet searching, I happened across a site describing the anatomy of the tongue that mentioned 'circumvallate papillae'... essentially huge taste buds in a row at the very back of the tongue. Sure enough... the nurse doing my vitals basically took one look and laughed at me and confirmed that's all they were. Stupid HPV.

Here's the wiki site for it that gives a good overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumvallate_papillae

A quick google image search will also give you some good pictures to compare.

Hope that's all it is!