I know, it does seem a bit of a coincidence  !!!  I havent had many partners. I married young, only 8 weeks  before my accident (aged 21) We lasted 7 years. He cheated, got her pregnant & left me. I then started to see my current hubby, 27 years ago. So the finger points to my ex !! Anyway, enough of what if's, I just gotta deal with it & pray it doesn't turn into the big 'C'.  Mind you, I'm probably due to have some more *** thrown at me, talk about unlucky. I must've been really bad in a previous life, lol. Good luck & take care

Hi, can anyone tell me if they get any pain with HPV ? My brain is in overdrive & I'm having pains like stomach cramps & groin pain. It's hard to remember if it's my usual pain or different......or am I imagining it ??

HPV as I understand it, that is the infection itself, doesn’t ordinarily cause any symptoms and that is why people don’t realise they have it. Pain is something that needs to be checked out.

My discomfort is mostly ‘naggy’, I’ve only twice taken pain killers for it. It is also more the lower pelvic area, rather than tummy, hence an initial diagnosis of a UTI when it first started.

Until we both have have further tests, we just don’t know what’s going on. It’s all very worrying, yes brain in overdrive !! but all we can do is wait for the medics. It’s tempting to consult ‘Dr Google’ but it’s best avoided! 

Tinkjar, thankyou. I'll have a few more tortuous weeks then before my smear & being able to ask questions.!!

Good luck with yours

Take care x

Same here. I’m 55 and have just had my smear results back. Told I have HPV but no unusual cells. Advised to go back for another smear in 12 months. Last smear (5 years ago) was clear and the letter didn’t even mention HPV so assume as they are now testing for it, this is why so many of us are here. I’ve not been sexually active for over 10 years after my divorce so I must have picked HPV up before I got married. Both my ex and I had relationships before we got together. I agree that there should be more information for older females who are in our boat. My HPV must have been hanging around for years so it’s unlikely it will have disappeared in 12 months. You ladies have been very helpful. Has anyone who has commented in this thread and who has been back after their results, got any updates? Take care and thanks for your help. Xxx

Hello, yes it seems many of us are on the same boat, with HPV infections we picked up originally, years, even decades ago. You’re right, they didn’t test for HPV before, so none of us would have known we’d picked it up earlier in our love lives! I actually think it’s most likely I got it from my first partner. 
Good news for me, I had a colposcopy this week and it was all clear, no cancer. I spoke to the Doctor about the HPV and he said, it can be dormant for years and reactivate, say if your immune system is low, then go dormant again. I also read somewhere that menopause might be a trigger. He advised me to keep up with my smears, which I obviously will.
Any women coming by reading these posts, just be aware that’s it’s not necessarily a case of having an active HPV infection and it’s been active all the years you’ve had it doing sinister stuff. It could well be a reactivation that will go dormant again. Maybe when the NHS get more data, they could discover that HPV is something of a more permanent nature for more women than is currently suggested. 
My advice is, try not to worry, keep up with the smears. Obviously if you do have any other symptoms, talk to the GP.  X

Thank you! You’re welcome, I think it helps to find there are others in the same boat, I was absolutely mind blown when the surgery phoned to say I had HPV, when I hadn’t had sex in years, I couldn’t process it, the nurse didn’t seem to understand my shock and concern, so I was even wondering if I’d misunderstood and was then waiting to read it in black and white in the official letter I got. The posts on this site really helped me. Good luck! X

I had my smear test results today and I have also been told that I have HPV I haven’t been sexually active for many years I’m in shock because I’ve never had this before and I’ve been told that I have to have to have another test in twelve months time but I’m not going to wait that long to be retested I think it’s to long to wait until another test is to be done my mother died of ovarian cancer when she was 32 years old and I’m not prepared to wait 12 months so I’m going to go to a private clinic and get retested in three months just to have peace of mind because I’m absolutely terrified and now I’m going to be worrying about this until I have my second test done. I’ve been reading about this but this doesn’t make me feel any better about the situation and the possibility that it could turn into something else. My cells were normal but who knows what can happen within a few months time. Sorry to be so negative about this I’m just really scared of the outcome 

Hello there. Yes, it’s a massive shock. I found it hard to process. I’d been having some pelvic pain which prompted me to catch up with a smear in the first place. The last thing I expected was to be told I had HPV but they couldn’t test my cells for abnormalities, so I was told I’d have to retest in 3 months. So, I had a colposcopy. They found nothing wrong and then when three months later I was retested for HPV, guess what, it had gone! So I don’t know if it was a reactivated old infection, or there’s such a thing as a false positive test? I agree get the test for peace of mind. Cervical cancer takes a long time to develop allegedly, but they obviously know HPV causes cervical cancer. If there are some of us that have an old infections that reactivate every time our immune system is low, one wonders if that puts us more at risk? They probably just don’t have the data, the NHS only started testing for HPV as part of the smear in 2019. Good luck, try not to worry too much, you have no abnormal cells. Let us know how you get on, so others who come along can see they aren’t alone.