While HPV doesn't come back after clearing completely, it's difficult to know if an infection has actually been resolved or is simply dormant. Additionally, while you're unlikely to be reinfected with the exact same type of HPV, you can be infected with another strain.
How often do people normally get flare-ups? – genital warts that have been removed, or those that go away without any treatment, may flare-up again after several months if the HPV infection causing the flare ups has not been cleared by the immune system yet.
HPV infections can persist and recur. Even women in long-term monogamous relationships can get reinfected. In a randomized clinical trial, HPV-associated lesions regressed at higher rates when male partners of women with such lesions used condoms (Int J Cancer. 2003;107:811-816).
The most common reason for cell changes to come back would be your immune system not getting rid of high-risk HPV. We don't yet know why some people can clear HPV and others can't.
This means that when the immune system “clears” the infection, it is no longer present, so it cannot be spread to someone else. However, what is important to understand is that many people have HPV infections without symptoms, so they do not realize they are infected.
For 90 percent of women with HPV, the condition will clear up on its own within two years. Only a small number of women who have one of the HPV strains that cause cervical cancer will ever actually develop the disease.
Most strains of HPV go away permanently without treatment. Because of this, it isn't uncommon to contract and clear the virus completely without ever knowing that you had it. HPV doesn't always cause symptoms, so the only way to be sure of your status is through regular testing.
In humans, the suppression of T-cell immunity, either by the administration of drugs such as cyclosporine to renal transplant recipients or following human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, has been proposed as a cause of latent HPV reactivation at sites of previous disease (1–8).
Can you pass HPV back and forth with your partner? – unlike STIs like chlamydia, it is unlikely that you will pass the same strain of HPV back and forth with your partner.
The rate of recurrence of genital HPV infection in healthy men — depending on the type — is 20% to 31%, according to researchers. HPV recurrence appears to be influenced by high-risk sexual behavior, they said.
Around 90% of HPV infections clear within 2 years. For a small number of women and people with a cervix, their immune system will not be able to get rid of HPV. This is called a persistent infection. A persistent HPV infection causes the cells of the cervix to change.
Our immune system generally works by recognising something that's not right and building an immunity that means we can't get the same infection again. But studies show our natural immunity against HPV isn't very good so it can be possible to have the same infection again.
Anyone who has had sex can get HPV, even if it was only with only one person, but infections are more likely in people who have had many sex partners. Even if a person delays sexual activity until marriage, or only has one partner, they are still at risk of HPV infection if their partner has been exposed.
In most cases (9 out of 10), HPV goes away on its own within two years without health problems. But when HPV does not go away, it can cause health problems like genital warts and cancer. Genital warts usually appear as a small bump or group of bumps in the genital area.
Q: How long after exposure does it usually take for something to be detectable? A: Changes consistent with HPV can usually be detected within 3-6 months after exposure to the infection.
Most men who get HPV never have symptoms. The infection usually goes away by itself. But, if HPV does not go away, it can cause genital warts or certain kinds of cancer.
The protection provided by HPV vaccines lasts a long time. People who received HPV vaccines were followed for at least about 12 years, and their protection against HPV has remained high with no evidence of decreasing over time.
This myth is based on an overly simple view of how HPV can be transmitted. Yes, penile-vaginal sex can pass the virus along from one partner to another, but HPV can be passed through other forms of skin-to-skin contact as well.
Multiple Sexual Partners
Because HPV is spread from one person to another by sexual contact, you increase your risk of getting a case of HPV when you have sex with multiple partners, even if you use a condom. While condoms can protect each partner from a variety of sexually transmitted diseases, HPV is not one of them.
If you still have HPV after 3 years, you may need to have a colposcopy. You'll be asked to have a colposcopy.
Most studies of HPV persistence have defined persistence as the detection of the same HPV type at 2–3 consecutive visits, each 2–24 months apart [10–18].
The majority of oncogenic oral HPV infections cleared quickly, with a median time to clearance of 1.4 years (interquartile range = 0.5-3.9 years). After 7 years of follow-up, 97% of incident and 71% of prevalent infections had cleared.
But women's risk for HPV is not over yet: There is sometimes a second peak around the age of menopause. Why? A study released early in 2013 of women 35 to 60 years old found that HPV in women at or after menopause may represent an infection acquired years ago.