HPV infections usually resolve on their own

Written by yvonnethornton on October 27th, 2011

It’s become common practice among some OB-GYNs to test for HPV, the human papilloma virus, due to the association of some strains of this sexually transmitted infection (STI) with cervical cancer.

But testing of women under the age of 30 is inadvisable. Because, although at least half of all sexually active men and women will get genital HPV at some point in their lives, the immune system will fight off and remove most of these infections from the body with no treatment. Seventy percent are gone within a year and 90 percent within two years.

It’s that 10 percent of cases we have to watch for. Some of those will lead to precancerous lesions in the cervix which, if left untreated, can develop into cervical cancer. But this process takes from 15 to 20 years. So, testing women under 30 for HPV leads to false positives, more testing, and perhaps invasive procedures in women who are at little or no risk of developing cervical cancer from HPV.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) therefore recommends that women under 30 not be tested for this STI, and I agree. If a woman under 30 has one of the high risk types of HPV, and if it persists, there will be ample time to find it and treat it. If she has one of the lower risk strains, it will probably be gone with no intervention within a year or two.

– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH

 

2 Comments so far ↓

  1. Hello Dr. Thornton,
    As I clicked on the link “The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) therefore recommends that women under 30 not be tested for this STI”, it sent me to a page that states “404 – File Not Found
    The file you requested is not currently available on The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Web site. We’ve recently redesigned the website so many of the URLs have changed. If you were linking from an outside site, you may want to let their webmaster know. If you’re linking from an ACOG site, a report has automatically been sent to the webmaster.
    We invite you to explore our site for other useful information.”

    I was wondering if you had access to that statement from ACOG and wanted to let you know so your site is up to date.

    Thanks for all you do!

    Dr. Justin Wubben

  2. yvonnethornton says:

    Good morning, Dr. Wubben:

    The blog was in 2011 and ACOG’s recommendations have now become part of their mainstream and therefore, not available as a topic on their website. First, let me correct you. It is not any STI regarding its relationship to Pap smears. It is specifically, the HPV virus. If you have an email address, I will send it as a .pdf attachment.

    Thank you for your kind words about my blog.

    Sincerely,
    Dr. Thornton
    (Yvonne S. Thornton, M. D., M. P. H., Sc.D.(hon), FACOG, FACS)

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