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My husband and I have never had previous sexual encounters and we've been married 20 years.
In June 30, 2009 I had my annual Pap and HPV test (first time for this), 2 weeks later a nurse called me on the phone and said your Pap was normal but you have an STD called HPV. Of course I explained this could not be possible and wanted a re-test. The nurse went on to say it was probably one of your husbands prior relationships. Which she had NO business saying, because my husband and I have always been there soley for each other, and there were no priors or in betweens. She really ticked the H E ** out of us. Both my husband and I went to the Gynecologist and explained our marital background and the no previous partner history, prior or during our marriage. On July 23 I was re-tested and I came out HPV negative. When I asked my Dr. if it could have been a false positive he said, "No, you had the virus but probably passed it." I was floored at his answer. He made me feel worse. I wanted to feel good knowing that it was negative instead he added to to my angst. I asked him don't labs make mistakes, he said it's very unlikely. I tried to get a third HPV test from another Dr. and she refused. Only adding to my distress. I am being forced to wait 6 months!. I told the second Dr. I have not seen any evidence that a person can have HPV and then 23 days later not have it. She said I will not test you now because of some OBGYN guidelines for testing. But that's not fair to me. What a horrible thing to put a person through, when I need to put the issue to rest. It's really affected my well being.
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Thanks for responding back; I did not intend for my response to sound as though I was taking your concern lightly.
As I said, you are correct, there are "false-positives" possible with any test, and I am surprised that this was not acknowledged by your health care provider as a possible outcome; it is rare, but does exist!
From my understanding of HPV, the only non-sexual methods of transmission have included childbirth, but this virus is "tricky" as you can have a positive test, and then the subsequent tests can be negative...because your body has suppressed the virus enough that it does not show up on tests. This is why I questioned your wanting a 3rd test as "proof"; if it came out negative (and, just for a moment, assuming your's or any other woman's first test of HPV was correctly positive), it would only result in the two scenarios: 1) your body "rid itself" or "suppressed" the HPV that showed up in the first test, or 2) the first test resulted in a "false-positive"...but neither of these can be "proven" through additional testing, unfortunately.
I am happy to hear that you are advocating for yourself! Your response to "I don't know anyone who takes hearing the news of having an STD lightly"...you would be surprised! Especially with the news of an STD like low-risk HPV...the statistics really do show that most women--about 80%--(who have ever been sexually-active) have been HPV-positive at some point in their life! It is akin to the diagnosis of having the flu virus, that your body is able to suppress or "fight off" where you would test positive for influenza at one moment; negative at a subsequent test; my point is: it is low-risk HPV extremely common and usually does not have any long-term side effects.
For these reasons, I assume your health care providers had these stats in mind when talking with you, and thus, did not demonstrate the amount of care and concern you were needing, while also taking into account your specific situation.
I am sorry that my response was offensive, but I really was honestly surprised at the amount of anger you described having toward the staff. I hope you find a wonderfully supportive and more open-minded new OB/GYN, who can (at least) honestly you that there are possibilities of "false-positives" on tests.
September 3, 2009 - 11:49amThis Comment
I am sure you did not mean to offend me, and quite honestly I can sort of understand how people might view my scenerio as unlikely, but unfortunately for me I seem to be the exception to the rule. I do think however, that providers should listen to their patients, as they are in the health"care" industry and their needs to be a going back to basics when it comes to patient care and caring about what your patient is telling you. If my anger towards the staff and Dr. seemed out of place, or surprised you then all I can say is that you really had to be there to understand how the way I was treated made me feel like a liar. Which I am not. I'm really quite surprised that you say most people having HPV akin this to something like the flu virus. I don't see the likeness other than it's a virus, and the flu can't cause cervical cancer and truly does not carry the stigma an STD does.
Thank you for your well wishes on finding a better OB/GYN, I am certainly working on it.
September 3, 2009 - 5:05pmThis Comment