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6 opinions for Education: HPV, Cervical Cancer and Your Fertility

• Todays Current Events in Cancer Research » Alert - cancer
  May 7, 2008 at 8:54 am

  […] Alert for: cancer HPV, Cervical Cancer and Your Fertility By Gabrielle Cervical cancer kills 288000 women annually worldwide. Cervical cancer is the only […]

• Gloria
  May 7, 2008 at 12:19 pm

  Gabrielle, thanks a LOT for the shout-out. :)

• Melis
  May 7, 2008 at 12:29 pm

  So it just so happens that this exact issue is HUGE with me right now.

  Just like in the video - I had read that doing an HPV test with your PAP had a better chance of finding anything that might be not quite right. So I did just that. Had to sign a waiver at the Dr.’s office (I’ve always just gone to my PCP for PAPs and such) in case my insurance didn’t pay for it, but they did. Of course had they not no one at the Dr’s office could tell me what it would cost and acted as though this was a very unusual request I was making.

  So about a week later I’m at work at the ON and my Dr. calls and says my PAP was fine but my HPV test was positive. BUT, he says, there’s a high rate of false positive with this test. So I ask what to do and he says they’re gonna refer me to a gyne. In the meantime I’m ALL OVER the internet doing searches, trying to figure out how exactly this whole HPV thing operates. And I feel like I found a whole lot of in-conclusive information from which I was unable to have all of my questions answered. THIS would have been an excellent time to write down all these questions so as to remember to ask the gyne, but alas, I did not.

  Long story short - well, I guess not at this point - we go through the whole thing about how HPV is an STD although it’s skin to skin contact so you can get it without having sex and you can carry it around so you have received it the first time you even messed around. YIKES. In other words, don’t kill yourself trying to track down where the infection came from. I’m told most people (I believe the stats say 80%) have HPV at some point in their lives but it typically lies dormant and there is no reaction of any kind. Oh, and men? They may occasionally develop genital warts, but that’s a whole different strain of the virus that causes that, vs. the strain that causes cervical cancer. The cancer strain - they (men) have no idea they have it so they just pass it along.

  The Dr. (gyne) ended up doing a colposcopy there at the office which I had been informed would be a posibility. I did the recommended ibuprofen beforehand and beside some discomfort and crazy messiness I was ok. Messiness due to the conical biopsy that was done. The Dr. mentioned some definite dysplasia with both the iodine and the vinegar solutions. How crazy my vajay-jay must have been lookin’. =) All these crazy cells standing out in there. Wacky.

  So I asked my Dr. - how should I handle this in my current/future dating situation? He said to talk about it to any current /future partners to let them know since it is an STD, and possibly, they don’t know, an incurable one. The nurse, on the other hand, told me not to worry about it at all since guys don’t even know they have it and won’t ever have any sypmtoms. Hi. Thank you moral dilema.

  The following week was crazy emotional, searching for answers, information, direction.

  I received a call from the Dr.’s office the follwoing week - still having a bit of discharge - telling my the biopsy was negative but they want to repeat the proceedure in 6 months. So I asked - Do I have HPV? The answer - well, if you do it’s not the kind that’s cancer causing. That’s all we can tell you at this point.

  ?~?~?~?~?~?~?

  So I may - or may not - have a potentially fatal STD that may be transmitted through a male partner and on to a different female partner causing her to be inflicted with a potentially fatal STD unless she already has it because 80% of people who have ever been sexually active do. Oh - and they don’t know if it ever really goes away. Ever.

  I made a comment on Gloria’s page and asked for some guidance in this area.

• Gabrielle
  May 7, 2008 at 12:34 pm

  dear lordessa, melis, what an ordeal!!! Thank you so much for sharing your real life experience with HPV here. I am hoping that you get some real answers that will not push you into any additional moral dilemmas. I am really sorry that there has been so much inconclusiveity. (is that a word?) :-(

• Anna
  May 7, 2008 at 3:14 pm

  Hi Melis–

  Thanks you for sharing your story!
  So many women encounter HPV at some point in their lives and I think hearing others’ perspectives helps.

  On the HPV Test website there’s a section with advice about living with HPV (from patients who are coping with it and from Doctors).

  Here’s the link: http://www.thehpvtest.com/coping-with-HPV-diagnosis.html

  I hope you find some good information. Stay strong!

  Anna

• Shinejil
  May 8, 2008 at 12:00 pm

  Melis, you’re very much in good company. I think because of the high incidence, informing a partner is up to you.

  HPV is only deadly if you never get tested and/or get paps. So, forewarned is forearmed. There are plenty of treatment options, most of which will not impair your fertility. Heck, I’ve got several friends who had not one, but two or more cone biopsies (when they remove a sizable amount of the cervix), a far cry from LEEPs or other milder treatments. And they had full-term, at home births.

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