I was diagnosed with HPV a few years ago, but it has since cleared up. Anyway, before I found out I had it, I had vaginal, anal and oral sex with one man (I had sex with a few men, so I don't know who gave it to me, could have been him, but he's the only one I had anal sex with)
what I wanted to know was, if I had HPV, what are the chances I have it anally? I'm fairly certain the strain I had showed warts in my vagina, but I haven't had warts in my mouth...
Should I go and get tested for anal HPV? Or because the vaginal HPV has been cleaned up, perhaps it has cleaned up if I had in in my anus anyway??
Please give me some advice! You should see a dr. if you have any concerns and to be on the safe side. You can request a rectal pap and be tested for HPV and also see a dentist for the oral portion if you have any signs/concerns about the oral HPV.
Unlike the other answerer said, YES, you can contract anal and oral hpv which can lead to anal and oral/mouth/throat cancers if gone unnoticed and untreated such as with vaginal HPV.
Remember, the anus, mouth/throat, vagina, and penis are covered with skin and mucosa, this is where the infection occurs when you come in sexual unprotected contact with someone who is already infected.
It's important to be aware, and have concerns of what's going on with ourselves. Good luck. if you are worried about it, are at risk for it.. then go see a doc.. it will ease your mind and if you are infected, you can get treated. Yes, you should be checked. Don't listen to that person who said there was no such thing as oral or anal HPV. There very much are such things, and in fact because it is not checked for in the way pap smears check for vaginal HPV, there's a lot of risk. Anal HPV can cause rectal cancer, and oral HPV can cause throat cancer, just as vaginal HPV can cause cervical cancer. Clearing the disease up in one area will not clear it up in other areas. That's good that you're checking on this--it's becoming common enough that docs are aware of it, but I guess not yet common enough that they're asking their patients about it. Women that have engaged in anal sex should under go anal paps. Anal HPV is a risk factor when you have engaged in anal sex. There is also a bit more risk if your diagnosis was CIN 3. At this time it is best to see a proctologist for an anal pap I have not encounter to many GYN that are doing this now...I assume it will be more common due to the higher rates of anal cancer...you can also read more on Farrah Facett battle with anal cancer.
A dentist is your first line of screening for oral HPV. You can read more on oral HPV at www.oralcancerfoundation.com
You do not always show a wart when you carry the virus. HPV can be silent for many years the only way to know if an area has the virus is through a check and most often rechecks.
I wish you well.
Routine Anal Pap Smear Testing Gains Ground
PATRICE WENDLING (Chicago Bureau)
Article Outline
鈥?Copyright
CHICAGO 鈥?Routine screening for anal intraepithelial neoplasia could
pick up missed cancers and represents an area of great professional
potential for gynecologists, Dr. Thomas C. Wright Jr. said at a
conference on vulvovaginal diseases.
The role of routine anal Pap smear screening is controversial in part
because a clear link between anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN) and
anal cancer has long been assumed, but never demonstrated in
prospective trials. Other factors may be that clinicians are
unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the disease, programmatic
considerations, and the lack of clear guidelines for screening and
treating various manifestations of anal neoplasia.
Advocates note that cytology is as effective in detecting anal
disease as it is in cervical disease, and that cost-effective studies
suggest that anal Pap screening is a viable option. Skeptics contend
that treatments for AIN often fail and there are no data that early
diagnosis leads to improved survival, function, or quality of life in
patients with anal cancer.
The issue has taken on new urgency with a recent change in New York's
HIV Clinical Guidelines stipulating that in order to receive state or
federal HIV funding, health centers must perform routine anal
cytology in HIV-infected individuals who belong to one of the
following categories: men who have sex with men, any patient with a
history of anogenital condylomas, and women with abnormal cervical
and/or vulvar histology. Many health centers serving homosexual men
are already providing the service, said Dr. Wright, a professor of
pathology and director of gynecologic and obstetric pathology at
Columbia University, New York.
"They are getting a lot of `abnormals,' and the internists are
calling us as people who specialize in gynecologic disease, and
asking, `What do I do with them?' "Dr. Wright said. "You are going to
be seeing a lot more of this, and anal exams are going to become
important to you."
Dr. Wright acknowledged that anoscopy is much more difficult than
colposcopy to perform because of the smaller, confined space and the
tendency of the anus to move. Also, anal mucosa frequently reacts to
acetic acid, which makes the differential diagnosis difficult;
hypertrophic papillae can mimic warts; and biopsy sites frequently
bleed.
"It makes you much more worried to do these procedures than it does
colposcopy," he said. "I hate telling patients they are probably
going to be bleeding for a day or two."
AIN appears as flat red areas that react strongly to acetic acid, and
can have prominent vascular features including extensive coarse
mosaicism or punctuation. AIN occurs most frequently at the anal
squamocolumnar junction, although it can occur in the anal canal
below the dentate line. It also can be contiguous with perianal
intraepithelial neoplasia, Dr. Wright said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Preventative Services
Task Force, the American Cancer Society, and the Infectious Diseases
Society of the United States all do not yet recommend routine anal
cytologic screening, Dr. Wright said at the conference sponsored by
the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP).
Dr. Mark Spitzer, the president of ASCCP, said in an interview that
the organization doesn't have guidelines on routine anal cytologic
screening because there is not yet sufficient scientific evidence to
show that anal cytology and high-resolution anoscopy reduce the
incidence of anal cancer.
"Current practice merely extrapolates from our very successful
experience with cervical cytology and colposcopy of the cervix,
vagina, and vulva," Dr. Spitzer said.
Members of the American Academy of Family Physicians also cited a
lack of evidence at their recent annual meeting when opting to refer
for further study a resolution calling on the academy to support anal
Pap testing for at-risk men and women.
Both Dr. Spitzer and Dr. Wright said there needs to be training for
pathologists on the interpretation of anal cytology and for clinical
practitioners on the obtaining of specimens. "Routine screening
doesn't make sense until a specific group of professionals is trained
in how to deal with positives," Dr. Wright said in an interview.
In the meantime, the New York mandate is not yet on the radar screen
of some physicians, while anal screening has been under way for about
a year at the Montefiore Medical Center's HIV Clinic and Jacobi
Medical Center, which serve 1.4 million women in the Bronx, N.Y., and
a large HIV population. The centers screen not only HIV-infected men
and women, but also women with other human papillomavirus (HPV)-
associated precancerous lesions, said Dr. Mark Einstein, a
gynecologic oncologist and director of clinical research for the
Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Montefiore Medical Center.
"The mandate coming down is a fantastic thing, and it's about time,"
Dr. Einstein said in an interview. "The biggest issue, even in the
era of HAART [highly active antiretroviral treatment] and
antiretroviral HIV therapies, is that the incidence of anal disease
and anal cancer continues to increase as opposed to all other AIDS-
associated diseases and malignancies that are on the decline in this
country. This is a disturbing trend."
Having recognized this trend, the National Cancer Institute's AIDS
Malignancy Consortium requires baseline anal Pap screening and
anoscopy as part of all its trial protocols, said Dr. Einstein, a
member of the consortium's HPV working group.
Dr. Einstein agrees that part of the problem with anal disease is the
lack of trained professionals to perform the testing and treatments
necessary for these patients. And he called on a variety of
stakeholders in women's health such as ob.gyns., gastroenterologists,
and family physicians to provide input into how to broaden
professional training. As more states adopt these mandates, state
officials are also going to have to participate in regulation, a
process for which New York officials are already preparing, Dr.
Einstein said. |
