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HPV Positive partner has developed warts/coldsores

StateofBengalIC408
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After my first smear test last year my result came back positive for HPV. I was pretty upset and felt like it was something to be ashamed of but with time and the help of friends and nurses I have realised it isn’t. My life has been completely unaffected by HPV (fortunately) and I now don’t think about it much. My partner, whom I have been with for 3 years, has also been great about everything.

About 6 months ago, my partner noticed what appeared to be genital warts and went to a walk in clinic about these. He told the doctor that he saw that I have HPV, and they attributed the warts to my diagnosis. I have never had any sort of warts or lesions down below.

On my next smear test, I mentioned this to my nurse and she told me that she didn’t know of any link between HPV causing partner to develop warts. We both forgot it but I was left feeling a bit of guilt, that I was perhaps the one who had caused this. 

Now, whenever my partner develops a coldsore etc I feel like it is because of me and my diagnosis. Please can someone tell me if it is and if there is something I need to stop doing/do more of? I feel there is a lot that I still don’t understand about my HPV diagnosis. Will it ever go away?

  • Offline in reply to StateofBengalIC408

    Hi 

    Coldsores are due to the herpes simplex virus and not related to HPV. As far as I'm aware, the HPV we are tested for as part of cervical screening is HPV 16 and 18, which are the high risk strains. My nurse told me that genital warts are a different strain of HPV and are not high risk. 

    Hope that helps

  • Hello and thank you for posting, I am sorry you have had these feelings since your smear that showed HPV.  

    HPV is incredibly common and 80 percent of those who are sexually active will get HPV at some point in their lifetime. This is men and women,  but we have no way of currently testing men.

    When someone has HPV we expect their immune system to clear the virus within 18 months, but during this time we would not expect to see any symptoms or side effects like genital warts or cold sores to appear as these are part of the herpes virus, not HPV. It may just be that your partner has this virus as it is also common, but it does not necessarily have anything to do with you having a HPV.

    There is nothing that you can do during this time to speed up the process of the HPV leaving your system, other than attending all requested cervical screening appointments. 

    There is a lot of information on both our website Cancer Research UK and Jo's Trust  the UK's cervical cancer website. These have the most up-to-date and researched information on HPV if you want to read more. 

    Take care, and I hope this has been helpful. If you feel that you want to talk anything through you may find it helpful to talk things through with one of the nurses on our helpline.  The number to call is Freephone 0808 800 4040 and the lines are open from 9am till 5pm Monday to Friday.

    Sarah.

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