Here's a new quiz on WebMD ... curious how the members do on this STI ...

HPV Quiz

70% correct or 7 out of 10 questions right.

I have learned a lot more about HPV in this quiz on WebMD than on media reports in the past year.

Thanks DArtagnan

I got 8/10.

The fact that HPV causes such a high % of all cervical cancers was a shocker to me.  

Definitely an eye-opener

and IMHO means taking an inventory of a new partner's history before touching her is a responsible thing to do

... btw I got 100% ...

anyone else lurking??

of the 150-odd types of HPV, there are 6 (some say 13) that really matter and 2 of those (type 16 and 18) are implicated in most (like 80+%) of the cervical cancers.  97% of all cervical cancers involve HPV.  The pathologists that focus on this like to say that there need to be two events simultaneously for a girl to get cervical cancer, one of those being the presence of HPV, but I haven't seen a confirming study on that statement, but the theory is that a girl has to have HPV and some other trigger, but that without HPV the "other" trigger (whatever that might be) is extremely unlikely to cause cancer.

It used to be thought that a person would clear an HPV infection after 9 months to 2 years, but now more researchers are of the opinion that some infections are cleared, and some go dormant (like HSV) only to re-emerge in periods of stress.

So, if a girl has HPV, it doesn't mean she's going to get cancer.  But if she doesn't have it, it means that it is unlikely that she will get cervical cancer.

The reason that the vaccine is only recommended for those under 26 is that it is presumed that by that age you've already been exposed to the bad strains of HPV.

Correct,


and correct.  

Cervical Cancer develops through a series of reversible stages before it becomes life-threatening.  
  - infection with a dangerous strain of HPV
  - development of atypical cells around the cervix, at the point where there is a boundary between the uterine cells and the cervical cells
  - atypical cells becoming cancerous
  - cancerous cells going through a series of more aggressive stages of development  

The point is: cervical cancer - i.e. the final 5th stage after the steps above - is the #5 cause of death by cancer in women.  Even taking into account hysterectomy and other painful and invasive treatment that is resorted to.  

so in spite of the probabilities of it being curable, it is nonetheless something to be very conscious of,

and choose your actions accordingly, based on how you would feel if one of those #5 most common cases turns out to be someone you know.

that's goooddddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!