If you get a positive HPV test, your physician has detected one or more high risk strains of the virus on the Pap test of your cervix. If the virus stays with you for a long time, it can cause cell changes that can lead to several types of cancer.
Q. What happens if you have HPV?
HPV can cause cervical and other cancers including cancer of the vulva, vagina, penis, or anus. It can also cause cancer in the back of the throat, including the base of the tongue and tonsils (called oropharyngeal cancer). Cancer often takes years, even decades, to develop after a person gets HPV.
Q. What are the stages of HPV?
As currently conceived (FIGURE 1), the stages in cervical carcinogenesis include HPV infection; persistence, rather than clearance of the virus, linked to the development of a high-grade precursor lesion or “precancer”; and invasion.
Q. How does HPV leave the body?
In most cases, your body can produce antibodies against the virus and clear the virus within one to two years. Most strains of HPV go away permanently without treatment. Because of this, it isn’t uncommon to contract and clear the virus completely without ever knowing that you had it.
Q. How can I boost my immune system for HPV?
The HPV vaccine is a good way to boost your immune system to fight HPV. People who are vaccinated are less likely to get genital warts, cervical cancer, and several other cancers caused by HPV.
Q. What vitamins help clear HPV?
Taking a multivitamin or folate and B-12 supplements might help your body fight off an HPV infection and clear up warts.
Q. Who carries HPV male or female?
Approximately 79 million Americans are currently infected with HPV, with roughly 14 million people becoming newly infected each year. Most men and women — about 80 percent of sexually active people — are infected with HPV at some point in their lives, but most people never know they have the virus.
Q. Is HPV serious for males?
HPV infection can increase a man’s risk of getting genital cancers, although these cancers are not common. HPV can also cause genital warts in men, just as in women. More than half of men who are sexually active in the U.S. will have HPV at some time in their life.
Q. How would a guy know if he has HPV?
No, there is currently no approved test for HPV in men. Routine testing (also called ‘screening’) to check for HPV or HPV-related disease before there are signs or symptom, is not recommended by the CDC for anal, penile, or throat cancers in men in the United States.
