Not passing HPV?

Current understanding of HPV says after 1 - 3 years with no symptoms you have most likely cleared the virus from your system. Has anyone successfully not passed this virus on to their significant other or am I destined to share this with my girlfriends/wife ?

There are over a hundred known strains of HPV. Some cause no symptoms, some cause cancer, some cause genital warts.


Most strains of HPV are often acquired at a young age (15-20) and more than 80% of those are cleared by the immune system spontaneously within 18 months.


HPV is so common (70% of the adult population will have had at least one genital HPV infection over the course of their life) and it is virtually impossible to determine when or from whom a person acquires the virus.


The other answerer is incorrect. The strains of HPV that cause warts often have a high persistence/recurrence rate, but more than 90% of patients with external genital warts experience complete viral clearance within 2 years (with or without treatment) --- however, just because warts disappear does not mean, necessarily, that your HPV infection is eradicated. Clearance of cervical lesions approaches 90-95%. Successful therapy for cervical abnormalities is often followed by viral clearance of HPV.

Only persistent infection with high risk HPV types may progress to precancerous and cancerous lesions. And the average time from acquiring a high risk genotype of HPV to the detection of cancer is 20 years. So, it is a slow moving virus.

That is why regular pap tests are important for women. They can, over time, show if an HPV strain is a persistent infection, or if it goes away on its own. That is why most physicians will not treat an abnormal pap for about 18 months. In the majority of cases, the immune system clears it. And if not, there is still time to treat it before it progresses to cancer --- not all persistent high risk genotypes result in cancer.

There are some conflicting epidemiological data on risk factors and co-factors for HPV infection. The only factor that emerges consistently is # of lifetime sexual partners.

Hope this helps

Depends on which HPV you are talking about. There are several kinds. But men usually only know when they are affected with one of types that cause genital warts. No matter how long you have been with out an out break of genital warts, you will always have them, which means you are always capable of spreading them.

Actually, my doc cleared me after being diagnosed with HPV. Apparently your body CAN fight it off in some cases. However, there are over 1,000 types of HPV. If you've been previously diagnosed, why not go back and see what your doc says?