Originally posted by dogthom at 4-7-2011 09:10
Butler,
Are you positive every strain of HPV will show up on a Pap Smear?
My understanding is they'll only test for HPV if, after doing a Pap Smear, they discover an anomaly in her results.
The HPV tests for women don't test for all strains (there are over 150, a couple of those cause genital warts in susceptible (but not all) individuals, and 15 of the 150 strains are implicated in cervical cancer with just 2 strains accounting for 75% of all cervical cancers). Most commonly the new liquid based pap smears can also test for generic HPV, and if that flags positive then the doc will test for the specific strain to see if it's one of the baddies. However, GYNs have all different procedures and who knows what the deal is with the doc working on your SO.
Because HPV is generally so harmless (it almost always goes away on its own and shows no symptoms) and because there is no treatment for it (girls can get a vaccine now if they're young enough) it tends to get spread around very easily, and if a monogamous girl gets it from you, well she'll know where you've been! |
