New Boyfriend just got HPV. What do I do?

• By sapphkat
• Posted April 20, 2009 at 12:53 am
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Since you know he has HPV, you could get the Gardasil vaccine.. it prevents most kinds of HPV causing genital warts. It would be best to do this before having sexual contact with him, but condoms are a good precaution as well.

I don't have low risk HPV, but it is my belief that you can usually tell prior to having an outbreak when you'll have one. So I would avoid sex during these times and also when he does have an outbreak to be really careful.

Also I think he can fight HPV same as if it was a high risk strain, to send it into being dormancy.. there are lots of threads on this.

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• By PJ2
• Posted April 21, 2009 at 4:44 pm
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If he does have warts, he needs to see his doctor (or yours) and have them burned off. Hopefully, his immune system will remain strong and he can fight off HPV. However, it will leave you open to the possiblity of getting HPV and warts from him, as condoms do not offer much help.

You didn't say, but do you have HPV or have you had cervical cancer? Either way, I think you both need to have a very frank and open conversation, which it sounds like you have already talked some about this.

Find out when hiw last breakout was and if he had it taken care of (warts burned off). If they weren't burned off, he needs to wait for the next outbreak and have it done. If you do decide to be together, do use condoms because you will be at risk and take care to examine him for wart breakouts. Yeah - I know it isn't so sexy or spontaneous that way, but you need to be sure you aren't opening yourself up to getting HPV warts vaginally or orally.

The other thing is that it might be a deal breaker for you and not worth dealing with. I once dated a guy several times after cervical ccancer and considering his sexual past and the fact he had warts before, decided I couldn't be with him in any way, shape or form. It was just too much to risk so close to my recovery. I waited, met my husband and it turned out he had warts too. He had them taken care off, we both got tested for everything (although he couldn't be tested for HPV since there is no test) and then used condoms until we had been together long enough and realized the virus had left his system (2+ years).

Now, I am no way saying risk it or that a condom will protect you, but if you love him or want to be with him or see a future with him, and he is worth discussing all this, then go for it, but know you are at risk.

PJ

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• By corellin
• Posted April 22, 2009 at 7:00 pm
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The Gardasil vaccine prevents infection with HPV types 6 & 11 that cause 90% of genital warts. Wouldn't it be worth getting the Gardasil vaccine and waiting 6 months for sex, just to be sure? Also, there's a good chance your boyfriend also has high risk HPV (not the wart variety), just because it's very common. The longer you wait for sex, the more time his body will have to clear whatever viruses he has, so a six month wait period can be useful to allow his body time to clear other, non-vaccine HPV types. Condoms help (can reduce transmission by as much as 50% to 70%). Personally, I'd get the vaccine and wait!!! The vaccine also protects against HPV's 16 & 18 which are the two that cause 70% of the cervical cancers. Just remember that intimate touching can also spread HPV, as can oral & anal sex. So, I know... it's a long time to wait, but wouldn't it be worth it to be safe? 6 months will go by in a flash! I've been dealing with the aftermaths of my bout with HPV since end of 2005. I'm still not the same since the LEEP procedure and if I could have waited six months to have avoided all this, I would have!

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