One year ago I thought I felt a bump or what I thought at the time, razor bumps, and I went to my GP and she said I had very tiny GW. She did nothing with them and sent me on my way. Of course I'm quite upset with the diagnosis and go to a Planned Parenthood a few weeks later to see what their opinion was. The NP said that she saw nothing, stated that warts usually don't go away that quickly and disagreed with her diagnosis. Even more confused, I sought a 3rd opinion from another NP at a gyno office - she found nothing either. So in summary, I've never had any treatment and never reoccurances/or new bumps in the last year and a half.

I'm assuming if I did have HPV, my immune system has cleared it. But the hard thing with me is to determine what would I ever say to future partners? It's hard for me to move on with conflicting diagnosis.

Hi sunandsurf,

It's hard to know what to say - or if you even need to say anything - to future partners when you have a near certain diagnosis, and it's even harder to sort out when things aren't clear.

When someone is diagnosed with warts it might make sense to tell a current partner, or one in the very near future, but it seems an unfair burden to expect them to bring it up years after the last wart was detected. People go back and forth on that, but it's hard for me to urge someone to discuss a wart diagnosis from, say, three years ago.

I don't know what to tell you, really, and would urge you to follow your gut. If you tell a partner, it's probably not so much needed to protect their health as it is because you might feel better about having the conversation. So, let your own needs here take priority. Given the conflicting diagnosis, it's not unreasonable if you don't bring this up and if you do, you can cover things like:

HPV is very common; most sexually active people have it at some point.

The virus is almost always harmless, and in about 90% of cases is never detected

In most cases (> 85%) the virus clears naturally in 6-24 months.

I hope this helps. Post again anytime.

Best,
Fredo

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Thanks Fredo, I really appreciate your insight. I wish there was some way I (and I'm sure many others!) would know for certain that if did have the virus, it's completely gone. I think that would ease a lot of minds here! Until then, I'll keep in mind the advice that you gave me. I know in the big picture, this really isn't significant and not the end of the world...just a little nagging and bothersome!

Thanks again.

Sure thing. Post anytime and keep in touch.

Best,
Fredo

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ASHA Moderator