Hi Sarah,

I'm not an expert but I think that HPV can stay dormant in the body for years, so it could have been transmitted early in your life and never given any signals it was there. HPV is serious because it can cause cancer of the uterus.

You say your smear test didn't show any abnormal cells, so that means all is good and healthy, you don't have cancer. But since HPV can lead to cancer, you have a high risk of developing it in future, but it doesn't mean that you will. Some people do others don't.

I don't know how quick the HPV could develop into cancer but if you do a test every year you should be OK, please check with a nurse or doctor. I don't know if it is possible to cure HPV completely. There is a vaccine for tens now, but that was not the case years ago.

If you are not happy with your doctor's advice you have the right to seek a second opinion. The Macmillan Trust can also help with medical advice, they have a free phone line. Or you could ring the number below to ask the nurses here more questions.

Hope this is helpful. All the best!

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I am very grateful. I will speak to my gp or nurse as soon as I am able, I feel so awful that my smear test was rather overdue though I guess prior to this one only reason cells would have been looked at if they were normal then. I wouldn't feel so worried if I had been sexually active in recent years as I'd feel reassurance that most infections clear within it says 1-2 years, it just feels a little pointless waiting for another year to see as it states if my immune system will clear it when I know that it must be a persistent infection because it has to have been so long since exposure. I didn't realise there was any change in the way they processed smear results and got a really awful shock seeing the hpv positive result and then all the information saying it usually clears in 24 months but for some it can persist and this then results in cell changes, I can't seem to find any percentage or risk that says of those with a persistent infection x amount is likely to cause changes. Once again thank you so much for your kind words. S x

Hi everyone, I'd like to thank you all for sharing your knowledge, experiences and fears because you have all really helped me. I've done lots of reading but this is the first site I've found that has acknowledged the difficulty of hpv that has been in the body a long time - and the anxiety that causes. It does seem that because they have only been testing for the virus for a few years, the research just isn't there in terms of whether hpv that's been in the body for years is more likely to develop into cancer.

Found I have hpv from my smear test at the beginning of February. Am 58 and not sexually active for 11 years so like many of you, wondering what it's been doing in my body for so many years and why it's surfaced now in particular. I am terrified. It doesn't help that my last 3 or 4 smear tests have been excruciatingly painful so I dread having to undergo more investigations.

Maz62 and Wellstone - have you had the results of your tests yet?  Really hoping you both get good news.  Dee1983 - if you are worried, I would flag up the hpv and really press for more action. Please let us know how you get on.

Hi, I am 64, abstinent for 10 years,with only two partners previously.  I was totally in shock when the hpv positive, no cell changes detected, letter arrived in February.  I have been trying not to worry but how can you not?  A year seems such a long time to wait and like others mentioned, I worry that the hpv is unlikely to become dormant after all this time.  I had kind of thought, when I was first notified, that maybe it had been dormant but all the stress of the pandemic plus losing both my parents and ex husband in a four month period and a house move, had been the cause of reactivation but reading all your posts it seems unlikely.  However, I am very grateful to have found this thread and to know I am not alone in this.

Hi Karen 

84% of the population have. HPV at anyone  time. In my case inwas  one if the really unlucky ones  my h p v 16+ has remained dormant for at least 40 years not detected  in any smears ias it wasn't checked until recently  4 years ago I had a lump in my collar bone thought I had pulled a muscle turned  out had h p v 16- tonsil cancer with several effected nodes. I have been married to hubby 42 years we trust each other implicitly I hadn't slept with anyone else and hubby had once prior to me. As my oncologist said we were unlucky probably been passing it to each other  for years.  There are no symptoms onky good thung us teenagers are now vaccinated nboty girls and boys But lucky in ine way that h p v oral cancers are curable treatment horrendous but I got through it. So put it out if your mind it's common to show on one smear but 12 month later you'll be clear. My cancer is extremely rare I don't smoke or drink. 
Hazel www.RadioactiveRaz.wordpress.com  my blog with tonsil cancer 

I hope your getting through treatment well. Thank you for sharing.

my Dad was recently diagnosed with throat cancer caused by HPV and has it secondary in a node. Unfortunately his is not operable as it's too deep in the throat and tongue but he will be starting radio and chemo in the next week or so.

However today I received news that I am HPV pos, first screening for 3 plus years...I can't remember when I had one last as I have a 4yr old.  I'm feeling a little freaked out. X

HinRay  don't worry about your dad chemo radiation is the gold  standard treatment I am now 4 years post radiotherapy for tonsil cancer with several affected lymph nodes happily living my life. As for your h p v status presumably from a recent smear test ? At any one time 84 % of the worlds population is h p v postive our bodies generally get rid of it over a period of time it's very very rare for HPV cancers to present so your dads  in an exclusive club which like me he didn't want to join but take heart HPV cancers are eminently curable .my blog below might help www.RadioactiveRaz.wordpress,com .

Its not usual to operate so don't stress the chemotherapy and radiotherapy work it's not uncommon either for patients not  to have all the chemo sessions radiotherapy is the main event so to speak.any questi9ns just ask always happy to help .please do it worry about yiur status there's no correlation to yiu dads cancer it's nit a genetic cancer  

Hazel 

Thank you Hazel. He's been give 88% chance of it being cured. Just got to get him through the next few months. I'll send him your blog, I'm sure he'll find it really helpful to read a real persons account rather then the stuff he's been googling! xx

Hi please please tell him to keep off Google the info is unregulated. As my oncologist ssud ti me he could go in and diagnose himself dead within 5 minutes. Please keep away verge info is mostly our if date. I'm 4 years post radiotherapy happily living my life. 
I will help if I can 

Hazel xx

Thank you. I've shared your blog with him. X

im going to make him up a treatment/recovery hamper, have you any Suggestions what I could include? He's in denial about how unwell he may feel. He's due to have 1 day chemo, 5 days radio per week. And feeding tube fitted at 3wks into the treatment x

Hi Ray. Don't think about the recovery phase just yet. It's best ti take everything)ng in small bite sizes. It's unusual l if anyone gets off Scott free , by week 3 inwas Nil  by mouth even plain tap water taste slime sewer water plus I couldn't swallow it. For hospital days with chemo maybe make sure he had a long cable for ohine or tablet as plugs are always out of reach. Any magazine s or books crossword puzzle tyoe books. I lost interest in reading for a good whike but in early days needed distractions. We watched box sets simple stuff. 
Boxes of tissues as once treatment starts there's lots of spitting to be done.

i boughta humidifier from Amazon for nighttime appx £25 mine was a cool mist I really it helps.  Because treatment is to our mouths and throats t( usual stuff that people take for I'll people aren't any use  food and drink for a good while is very hard  it becomes a matter if food is fuel . If you could  arrange a rota for people to take him to hospital would be a good idea  plus company at home short visits usually the first week eating and drinking is ok ish then by weeks 3-4 gets harder or impossible  

A note  book  for any questions and a pen are very useful  Make sure he takes medication as directed  

there's no prizes for being brave pain s real  

hooe this helps Hazel 

Hello, I was diagnosed 9 years ago, not had a partner for 13 years and after being diagnosed with HPV I have deliberately stayed away from relationships. 
Have just met someone who I really like, tried not to but I he's on my mind all the time.  we haven't had sex, but how do I tell him I'm HPV positive :-(

Just feel so sad and almost dirty/contaminated :-(

We are from same circle of friends too so I'd hate them to find out. 

Hello, I was diagnosed 9 years ago, not had a partner for 13 years and after being diagnosed with HPV I have deliberately stayed away from relationships. 
Have just met someone who I really like, tried not to but I he's on my mind all the time.  we haven't had sex, but how do I tell him I'm HPV positive :-(

Just feel so sad and almost dirty/contaminated :-(

We are from same circle of friends too so I'd hate them to find out. 

Hi don't even thjnk sbout it 84% of the world at any one point are h p v positive. Majority geg rid of it naturally a tiny snd I mean ti y go on like me ti get h p v oral cancer 40 plus years later. . So don't think about it  Hazel x

Thank you Hazel, feel so down about it like life is just over and I'm just existing. Not in a dangerous way I hasten to add just go back to work, home and repeat and keep smiling mode and break it up with him before it gets serious. 
  
I'd be so worried I'll end up with a call from him that he has woken up with a sore or something I just can't bare it :-(

Hi chat with your g p hpv does not cause rashes unlike some sexual transmitted illnesses please don't let  it ruin yiur life. 
i had no idea I had h p v lived very happily and my hubby if 40 years never caught it or not that we know we had regular sex and still do. 
lHazel x

Thank you for your kind words of support Hazel. It's so hard to get a GP appointment at the moment but I will try again, so much appreciated.
Just stuck between a rock and a hard place at the moment . Can't bare to tell him and couldn't bare to not and have sex, I'm running out of excuses to him  
Will read through this site some more too. 

Just stumbled across this blog and it's the first realistic information I've come across. I'm 59, always had regular smears, been exclusively with the same partner for 38 years, so a positive HPV test blew my mind. The "sexually transmitted" element has absolutely battered my trust in my husband and whatever he says that just won't go away. Like others I've been told to go back in 12 months but the worry and suspicion remains. Thanks everyone for sharing, I wish I'd found this sooner, at least I know I'm not alone with the worry and confusion.

Hi, I'm new to the forum but just wanted to say 'trust your husband'. I'm 56 and I've had regular smears throughout my life. I know I picked up the HPV virus 38 years ago well before I met my husband.

I had genital warts when I was about 18 but I was told that some of the more sinister HPV variants can piggy back the less troublesome ones. However no one tested for HPV back the. Fast forward to now and I recently had my first HPV test and yes it came back positive but no abnormal cells. A bit of a shock but it clearly hasn't left me in all that time, probably as I've read it can lay dormant and come back again many years later.  

I've been marred for over 30 years. This is something I picked up well before I met my husband and the likelihood us you will have too.

I hope this may give you some peace of mind and restore your trust in him x

Thank you ️

Hi, I'm happy to answer. No he never got them despite them reappearing (on me) just once in my twenties after we got together. He must have the same HPV virus's that I've got by now but warts is something that didn't affect him. X 

My heart is breaking, last two weeks I've been under the most dreadful stress I've ever experienced due to a family member getting arrested.  Sleep and appetite is completely lost. 
I've been feeling sore down there last few days so investigated and I'm a covered in spots. 
I'm not long in a relationship and we haven't had sex for 7 weeks but iI just want to run and hide, end it with him and just give up. 
Can't stop crying