Hello, I am really sorry to hear you are in this situation. You sound fraught with worry. 
 

let me tell you what I know. HPV lives on all of us and there are over 100 different types that can affect different areas on the body. The common cold sore is a form of HPV. It affects some people and not others.  Men and women carry various strains of HPV and most of the time it lives harmlessly on our skin. We don't even know! Internally, within a woman, there are 2 strains of HPV which are tested for during a routine smear. A positive result can mean you have both or just one strain identified in your sample. Your results won't say. These are called 'high risk' strains. I'll explain why later. 

until recently, the cells on a smear were just examined. If there were no cell changes a woman was put on routine recall for 3 or 5 years depending on her age. We didn't know if she had HPV or not, and therefore, if she did, the virus had 3+ years to hang around unmonitored, potentially leading to cell changes and cervical cancer in some cases. HPV is the driving force for cell changes on the cervix. It does not mean you have cell changes. It means the 'right' environment is there for cell changes to potentially happen.  A positive result would mean you would be eligible for yearly smears to see if the HPV was still present. Therefore making sure it was not up to no good with the cells on your cervix. HPV is cleared by the body. Just like any other virus. The hope is that your body will clear this itself, but until that time the screening service will keep an extra special look on you to defect any possible changes really quickly. 
 

HPV is extremely common. I am sorry to say that if your boyfriend wants to cool things then I think he needs to spend time reading up on HPV and the fact that he will most likely have it in some form and there is no blame. However, please just check he knows this is HPV and not HIV! Completely different!

There is no point in trying to blame yourself for where the HPV came from. It is passed by skin to skin contact, and we all have it in varying degrees. It just so happens that the strain you have lives where it lives.  
 

when a cervical sample is now taken, it is tested for HPV first. If it's is positive the cells on the sample are looked at in closer detail ( remember it has to be present for cell changes on the cervix to occur). This is why the are called high risk strains. Left unmonitored they can cause cell changes. Unfortunately in your sample, they discovered the HPV but the sample did not contain enough cervical cells to determine whether the sample has no cell changes. This is purely because there were not enough cells gathered at the point of sampling. Each woman is different and the nurse takes each sample the same way. It is not an error by the nurse, it's just the labs want more cells to be confident in giving their results. It does not mean they have found cell changes. Your next smear will hopefully provide enough cells to give you a conclusion. 
 

I hope this helps you. As I said, HPV is very common in cervical samples and most of the time there has been no cell changes or only mild cell changes which can be easily addressed with outpatient treatment. This is why it's so important to have smears when called for. 
 

I hope this helps a little xxx
 

Good morning  johol 

Thankyou so much for your reply you have helped ease my mind I've just never heard of hpv before so as soon as I started googling it ' I know that's the worst thing to do' it was coming up for all sorts.

do you by any chance know which two strains it is that they test for in the smear? Am I right in thinking the strains for genital warts are classed as low grade? So this therefore doesn't mean I have this type of hpv? 
honeslty I have sat and cried all afternoon yesterday with worry it's such a horrible feeling but at least I know it's nothing that I have done in a sense that's made me catch hpv xxx

Ah, I am so sorry you are feeling so low. 
 

I am going to suggest you look at Jo's trust on the internet. It has a fantastic ( and trustworthy) section on HPV and genital warts. It can explain things much better than I can. they also have a helpline you can call free of charge. It may be helpful to talk your concerns through and find the reassurance you need and deserve. 
 

I hope you don't think I'm dismissing your questions, but Jo's trust are brilliant and will help you much more than I can. 
 

Best wishes, Jo x