me and my boyfriend broke up for a few months a while back. we both saw other people. The girl he slept with has cervical cancer and i just recently found out i have hpv. Am i more likely to have cervical cancer since she has it? is it the specific strand that caused it?
Responses (2)
Yes, and no. There is some evidence that certain strains of HPV are more virulent but this is only one factor and there are plenty of others. Smoking, for instance, can significantly increase the chance of cervical cancer in HPV carriers. Being overweight is another one. Also, your body's resistance to virus is important (so eat well). Generally the HPV virus is killed off by a strong immune system. It's only in certain cases that it sticks around and then leads to cervical cancer.
There are no guarantees with something like this, but you should do everything you can to swing the odds even further in your favour (i.e. don't smoke, maintain a healthy weight, eat a healthy diet).
HPV actually isn't all that dangerous, although it can cause genital warts or abnormal cell changes it normally clears up after a few days or so. If it doesn't you can get treatment, just don't get the Gardisil vaccine because it's dangerous and almost- if not, worse than HPV.