[Question #4249] HPV16

83 months ago

I was recently diagnosed with Ureaplasma and asked a question about it separately. Here is my history:

I was sexually abstinent from July 2010 until March 2016. In March 2016, I met my current partner, who is married. Our relationship is monogamous in the regards that I do not and have not had sex with anyone else and he has sex with his wife and me (without her knowledge).

I was screened for all STI’s prior to starting the relationship and everything was negative. I was screened again in April 2017 and May 2018.

Prior to the recent Ureaplasma positive test (3 weeks ago), back in April 2017, I tested positive for HPV 16. Needless to say I was very upset. I had previously been screened for HPV for over 15 years and have never had a positive test result. My doctor told me that most women clear new infections within 2 years. I cleared mine within 6 months. When I told my partner, he said that his doctor told him that all of my negative results didn’t mean anything… that I could harbor the virus for 20 yrs. He believes that the HPV 16 laid dormant for that long and just popped up as an active infection.

When I questioned my doctor about this, she told me that that scenario was “highly unlikely”. She said dormant infections can re-occur in immuno-compromised people and the elderly. I do not fit into either one of those categories. She also said that fact that I cleared the infection so quickly characterized it as an initial infection instead of a re-occurrence of an old infection as those require more invasive treatments to get rid of. She also told me that monogamous couples cannot pass new HPV infections back and forth. My partner has been married for over twenty years. She advised me to question whether or not the relationship was as monogamous as I described above.

Should I have been more concerned about fidelity? Was I careless to believe I had a 20 yr old infection vs. a recently acquired one?

Edward W. Hook M.D.

83 months ago

Thanks for separating your two questions and for the additional information. I am more in agreement with your doctor than with your partner's doctor. Indeed, HPV infections certainly do clear without therapy- your time course is typical- and it could re-activate in the future, particularly if you were to be immunosuppressed as a result of cancer chemotherapy or other medications which can effect the immune system but in most persons once an HPV infection becomes quiescent, it stays quiescent. While one can never say never, it is more likely than not that your recently positive tests are due to recent acquisition. That is resolved is a good thing.

My sense is that your infection is more likely than not to be recently acquired. I would not use your HPV (or ureaplasma) test results to argue that this is a sign of infidelity on the part of your partner. Too much is unclear.

And, you don't sound careless at all. Please don't be too distraught about these infections. If there is reason to worry about your partner's fidelity, I would look for more evidence that these two infections which could represent longstanding infection/colonization. EWH

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