"I was told that this was a disease which was spreading rapidly among young people and could be cancerous,” she says. “I felt like I was a medical mystery, but it soon became clear in television commercials that it was becoming more mainstream.”
Genital Human Papillomavirus, known as HPV for short, entered the national consciousness due to pockets of national legislation aimed to combat the disease through regulation of preventive vaccination. Barrages of advertisements pushed this once-obscure acronym into the national consciousness, creating watercooler talk for young women across the nation.
“Among women, especially ages 25-35, HPV is positioning itself to be an extremely important sexual and cultural issue,” says Dr. James Cooper, a Portland-based gynecologist who practices at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. “Women need to be more careful with their sexual health than ever before.”
Sexually-transmitted HPV encompasses two strains of the virus. One of these, known as “low-risk” HPV, causes warts on the body (on the hand, nose or genitals). But “high-risk” HPV is the center of the recent controversy regarding HPV’s link to cervical cancer. High-risk HPV is detected by the presence of abnormal (or pre-cancerous) cells in the genital region when women receive a pap smear.
“With the exception of AIDS, people usually discount sexually transmitted infections as an inconvenience — something they could cure with a cream or with time,” Cooper says. “But what is scary about HPV is how easy it is to spread, how it can only be detected with a pap smear and its potentially cancerous risks.”
The disease is unique in its staggering presence in society. According to the American Medical Association, 20 million Americans are infected with a type of HPV — roughly 16 times the population of Maine.
Infection is rampant partially due to the high transferability of symptoms. As one of the few diseases virtually unaffected by condom use, HPV is often able to pass through barriers partner-to-partner. In a 2001 study, The National Institute of Health found that condom use did not necessarily slow down infection from partner to partner, and as high-risk HPV does not show any symptoms in men, it is easy for the virus to transmit.
One of the most troubling aspects of (high-risk) HPV is that most men don’t know they’re carriers. Because condoms don’t cover all of the areas on the body which are open to infection, people can always be in the line of fire.
Symptom-free for men, the disease can be transferred quickly and often without the knowledge of either party. This is why the AMA estimates that approximately 50 percent of all women will be infected with a type of genital HPV in their lifetime.
“Although it is not a disease to take lightly, it is refreshing to know that if you are diagnosed, you are certainly not alone,” Cooper says. “It travels in and out of the bodies of millions of females and is a common presence.”
A solution to battling the disease is a vaccination which can prevent the cancerous strain from affecting patients’ health. Although detractors claim the drug has not been around long enough to properly assess potential negatives and side-effects, the vaccination has formal support of doctors nationwide, as well as Planned Parenthood.
The Maine Legislature is debating a bill which would allow the vaccine to be covered under MaineCare and the Maine Immunization Program in order to provide the medicine to many low-income patients.
“If this bill is passed, it would make it possible for women all over the state to get protection against HPV infection,” Cooper says. “And although it is a bit costly, it will be far more effective than trying to cure cancerous outbreaks if the disease is allowed to fester.”
If you fear you may be infected and haven’t received the vaccination, the best plan of action is to head to your gynecologist. A pap smear will determine what, if any, level of infection there is, including any traceable cancerous cells.
Since the virus is non-curable, it will remain in a body for an indefinite amount of time, staying dormant with the potential for symptomatic flare-ups. If a high-risk infection turns out to be cancerous, doctors will develop a specific treatment plan to fit your needs.
Melissa is still waiting to hear definitive test results about how serious her infection is and what medical procedures she may have to undertake because of it.
“I don’t want this to affect my life any more than it has to,” she says. “In the mean time, I’m telling all of my girlfriends to go find this vaccination, because I want to save them the grief I had to go through.”
For more information about the HPV vaccine, call Planned Parenthood of Northern New England at 1-800-230-PLAN.