High-risk HPV strains like HPV 16 and HPV 18 don’t show any symptoms on the cervix or elsewhere. For that reason, checkups are crucial to identify whether you have cervical HPV and to find and treat any precancerous cell changes, known as dysplasia.
If a woman has a history of normal Pap tests and doesn’t have certain risk factors (such as a compromised immune system), the ACOG says that she should have one of the following tests between 30 and 65 years of age:
- A Pap test every three years
- A Pap test and an HPV test together every five years
- Just an HPV test every five years
Even though HPV is common, many women will never know that they have it, since the cervix often sheds HPV-carrying cells without treatment. This is particularly true of women under 30.
“Many times, when women acquire HPV at a young age, there is a high clearance rate, and they tend to clear it on their own without any need for procedures like colposcopies, which we used to perform a lot in the early 2000s,” says Salena Zanotti, MD, an ob-gyn at the Cleveland Clinic in Avon, Ohio. “This is because our immune systems are definitely more active the younger we are.”
What if I Test Positive for HPV 16 or 18 of the Cervix?
Testing positive for HPV 16 or 18 doesn’t mean you’ll definitely develop cervical cancer — the likelihood that cancer will develop is extremely low, even for those with HPV 16 or 18, but you still shouldn’t ignore a positive high-risk HPV test.
Based on the results of your Pap test and HPV test, your doctor can develop a plan to either treat the dysplasia, carry out further testing to rule out cancer, or recommend more frequent follow-up visits to look for additional changes.
“Paps of the cervix have been tested for a long time, and we know the changes HPV causes in the cervix,” notes Dr. Zanotti, meaning that doctors can often tell which changes to the cervix pose the most immediate danger.
If you get diagnosed with HPV, and everything else tests okay, then it is likely that the HPV will clear on its own within one or two years, if you don’t have a suppressed immune system.
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