Description

This video by TV360 shows you how Jenny learned to live with HPV part 2/2.

Transcript

How to Live with HPV Part 2/2 Jenny’s story really illustrates many of the questions and concerns that women have when they have had abnormal Pap test related to HPV. HPV usually causes no symptoms. You don’t know you have it. It doesn’t cause pain, bleeding, discharge. There is nothing you can see externally unless you have the genital warts. But the high restraints of the virus essentially have no associated symptoms with them. There is no treatment for the virus itself but if the virus causes the abnormal pre-cancerous cells to develop, we can treat the pre-cancerous cells so that you don’t ever develop cervical cancer and that is why continued screening is very important. So, we can pickup these cell abnormalities long before they’d become cancer. HPV is very common. It is estimated that perhaps 80% of the population will have been exposed to HPV at some point in their lives. And in women who are in their 20’s about 50% of them currently have an HPV infection so you can see that there’s a very common, very prevalent infection. HPV is an STD in the literal sense and that we know that because HPV is a skin virus, it is not past through blood and body fluids like other viruses. It is passed direct skin contact to skin contact so the way that women get the HPV on their cervix is through sexual contact. The use of condoms has been suggested that may help reduce the risk of transmission of the virus. However, because the virus can live on the skin of the scrotum as well as the penis, a condom only covers the penis and therefore may not completely cover all of the skin that might have the virus there. We always recommend Pap Smear screening because that is the best way to tell if the HPV infection has caused the cells to become abnormal. So, Pap Smear screening is extremely important for all women for all of their lives. Learn as much as you can about HPV. Take a very proactive stance with your health. Talk to your health care provider about what HPV means to you. Are you a candidate for the vaccine? When do you need Pap Smear screening? All of those kinds of things to keep yourself as healthy as possible.