[Question #6811] hpv and risk from mother to child during birth and breastfeeding

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65 months ago

Hi Dr. 


Can high risk hpv be passed from me to my children through breastfeeding/breastmilk?  Wondering if this will put them at risk for any cancers where hpv is the cause. Ive read on some sites that breastmilk can contain hpv but my doctors said it was okay to breastfeed. 

 

Can high risk hpv be passed from mother-to-child from a vaginal birth? Dr said would not happen just from this one exposure in the birth canal. 

 

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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
65 months ago
Welcome back, but I'm sorry your HPV problem is throwing you for such a loop and you felt necessary to return to the forum. This question came up during my watch, but I reviewed your recent discussions with Dr. Hook.

My first comment and advice, echoing both the substance and tone of Dr. Hook's remarks, is that having HPV -- even with precancerous cervical changes -- should be viewed as an unpleasant inconvenience, not a serious health risk (as long as the patient follows her doctor's follow up advice). Once such problems are diagnosed, almost nobody develops invasive cancer or has a serious outcome.

Also, you need to learn to trust and believe your doctor. Both in your previous two threads and here, everything you say about her (or him?) and the advice you received has been exactly in agreement with us. Most gynecologists these days are highly versed in HPV and all important aspects of it. (And for actual treatment -- managing your symptoms, pap smears, and cervical health -- much more knowledgeable than I and Dr. Hook are. We and most STD experts do not provide care to women with abnormal paps or cervical HPV infections; we leave that to the ObGs.) In any case, she is exactly right both about breast feeding and about the risk of HPV for babies delivered vaginally. HPV does not travel through the body, such as cervix to breasts, and I am unaware of any reports of infants being infected by nursing, regardless of possible HPV in milk or nippes. Certain types of HPV can infect skin anywhere on the body. (Similarly, sex partners are not at risk for oral HPV from sex involving oral-breast contact.) As for vaginal delivery, rpoughly half of all women age 20-50 have detectable genital HPV, therefore about half of all babies born vaginally are exposed. And yet HPV in newborns is a very rare event. This really is not something to be worried about.

In addition, I would encourage you to stop searching online about HPV. Like many anxious persons, it seems you're being drawn to out-of-context information that inflames your fears and misses the reassuring information that also is present. It doesn't seem worth it and I suggest you lay off HPV related searching for a few weeks.

Bottom lines:  No worries for a future baby's health. You can rely on your doctor's advice going forward. Try to remember that millions of women have the sort of problem you're experiencing, and they all come through fine. So will you. Do your best to move on without worry; I hope this and your two previous discussions help you do that.

Best wishes--  HHH, MD
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65 months ago
Thank you. I have been staying offline. As such, I have a few questions for you so I am not tempting to look it up. My husband says it is like falling down a rabbit hole when I do. 

1.) Is hpv found in a person's blood? Im assuming no and it can not be passed on this way?

2.) I had asked doctor hook about taking a medicine and it reactivating HPV. It was metronidazole tablets. He said no. Would the same apply to the metro gel? (Worried because says long term use in rats causes cancer). What about Zoloft or any other meds?

3.) Can diet cause hpv to reactivate?

4.) This question I am not sure if you will know the answer to but I figured I would pose it to you first. My husband said to not call the dr about it and it is not a concern. I dont want to ask another dr online and I trust you and Dr. hook and am hoping you can help:   Im not sure if this is a thing but while applying the metro gel some got onto a blanket that my older child touched. If she got some on her or if she then touched a toy or stuffed animal or the couch something and some of the gel was placed there, would this be a concern if she kept touching the toy, etc. over a period of time and then went to the bathroom or ate or had it on her skin (I realize I am reaching but this cancer fear is real for me since it says long term use in rats causes cancer)? 




 



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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
65 months ago
A wise man, your husband!

1) No, HPV doesn't circulate in the blood.

2) Your doctor is correct. No medications are known to reactivate HPV, with the potential exceptions of potent immunosuppressive drugs such as high dose corticosteroids or cancer chemotherapy.

3) Diet has no effect. The only lifestyle situation or habit known to do this is tobacco:  both HPV reactivation and the risk of progressing toward cancer are higher in smokers than nonsmokers.

4) Genital HPV is never transmitted to household members or children, regardless of the sort of contact you describe. Just use common sense hygiene, i.e. hadnwashing before intimate child contact, e.g. diaper changing. But don't owrry if you forget. The only way kids get HPV in the household is through sexual abuse. Assuming that's not an issue, this is nothing to lose sleep about.

Look at it this way. You have a certain number of friends, family members, co-workers, etc around your age. 10? 20? 50? Some of them have kids and at any point in time, half of them have active genital HPV that could be detected by testing. How many of their kids or other nonsexual contacts have had HPV problems? None. Despite years of sharing toilets, towels, etc, etc. No sex means no HPV transmission. Just believe it and do your best to stop worrying! You're no diffderent than all the other millions and millions of people with current or past genital HPV. Once you're following your doctor's advice for cancer prevention (follow-up pap smears etc), all other worries are gone. And that includes sex with your husband:  whatever sexual practices give you mutual enjoyment should contininue unabated.

That concludes this thread. Please note the forum does not permit repeated questions on the same topic or exposure. This is your eighth will have to be your last one about HPV and the other issues you have asked about; future ones will receive no reply and the posting fee will not be refunded. This policy is based on compassion, not criticism, and is intended to reduce temptations to keep paying for questions with obvious answers. In addition, experience shows that continued answers tend to prolong users' anxieties rather than reducing them. Finally, such questions have little educational value for other users, one of the forum's main purposes. Thanks for your understanding. 

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