I have just received my smear test results it says positive for hpv, and i will be sent for another test in a year.ive spoke to ny doctor but he didnt help to put my mind at rest, im worried like hell
You are in the same situation as millions of other women. This is something you need to be aware of, but nothing you need to lose any sleep over. HPV often goes away on its own, and your retest next year is to check if this has happened.
Being HPV positive means that you may need to be retested more frequently, but please don't panic about this. Any pre-cancerous changes will be caught nice and early, and treated long before it turns into actual cancer.
This is a nuisance, but no more serious than that. As long as you continue to have your smear tests you'll be fine.
Reading around, it appears that you can get HPV from any type of skin to skin contact to the genital area. It doesn't need a full sex act to be performed. From that I would presume it might include actions such as teenage fumblings and (speculating here) maybe even masturbating after shaking hands with someone who has the infection on their skin.
It can lie dormant for many years before actually appearing as an infection. And indeed many people do clear the infection from their body, so that they may possibly pass the infection on, but are clear when tested subsequently.
Since it is frequently asymptomatic, many people with the infection but who've never been tested may be in serially monogamous relationships whilst inadvertantly passing in onto their partners, or getting the infection from a previous partner.
This means that for most people it is impossible to pinpoint an actual event which caused the infection, and who they caught it from.
