The good news is that most of us will clear HPV infections without ever knowing we had them. The virus lives in the skin or mucous membranes and usually causes no symptoms, only sometimes resulting in warts or pre-cancerous changes in the cervix and vagina. In fact, the CDC tells us that for about 90 percent of women, cervical HPV infection becomes undetectable within two years. But, this good news does have a bit of a caveat: if most people don’t have symptoms, then how do we protect ourselves and our partners from getting it? And therein lies that 80 percent: without a telltale wart, it’s easy to pass on HPV, lovers none the wiser.
But protecting yourself from HPV is difficult, save for the chastity belt and a vow of celibacy. Condoms don’t totally prevent it, since the virus is spread by skin to skin contact and skin surrounding the genitalia is not covered by a condom. The best way to prevent HPV infection is to be in a monogamous relationship with a partner that is not infected. You can also try and limit the number of partners you have and make sure they have had few or no prior sexual partners. Unless you’re in the habit of dating priests, I’m not sure this advice is all that useful, so what should women do?
Get pap smears and get them regularly. Infection with HPV is not a big deal, but infection with a high risk strain followed by years of neglecting to see a gynecologist is. Pap smears (which are part of a normal gynecological exam) are THE tool in making sure you do not have abnormal changes in the cells of the cervix. If you do have abnormal cells, your doctor can do an HPV test to determine if you have high-risk types of HPV in the cervical cells. Regular Pap testing can help ensure that pre-cancerous changes in the cervix caused by HPV infection do not develop into cervical cancer.
Hopefully, if all goes well with the HPV vaccine, this article will be obsolete for the next generation of women. But for this generation, there are many more years of those gynecological stirrups to look forward to. I’ll take them over chastity, any day.
