Men's Health Can women be infected with hpv?

The answer is that it is entirely possible, and even clinically, nearly 70% of women's HPV infections come from sexual partners who do not have any symptoms and appear to be very "healthy" on a daily basis.

Many people have an inherent misunderstanding about the spread of HPV. They think that only infected people with genital warts and obvious skin lesions can be infected. This is not the case. You will understand by talking about the case I encountered in the gynecology clinic last month: a 29-year-old female patient is a primary school teacher. She usually keeps herself clean. She has only had her husband as a sexual partner for three years. Her annual gynecological examination is all normal. This year, a routine TCT and HPV test were carried out, and the high-risk type 18 was found to be positive. She was red-eyed on the spot. She either felt that the hospital had made a mistake in the test or suspected that her husband was cheating on her. As a result, I asked my husband to take a test. The man is a fitness trainer and usually does strength training at least three times a week. He rarely catches a cold all year round and doesn’t even have a suspicious rash on his body. It turns out that the HPV test does carry the same type of virus. He was confused throughout the whole process and had no idea when he was infected.

To put it bluntly, this is the cunning point of the HPV virus. The physiological structure of the male external genitalia is relatively dry. Most people infected with HPV will not experience obvious symptoms of discomfort. In many cases, the virus is in a transient latent state. The virus may be eliminated in a month or two by relying on one's own immunity. However, during the period of carrying the virus, as long as there is unprotected sexual contact, there is a probability of transmitting the virus to a partner. In this state, according to the health standards of ordinary people, men are completely healthy - no disease or pain, daily activities are not affected in any way, and routine physical examinations cannot detect any problems. However, the contagiousness of the virus is real. This is actually the same as some people who carry cold viruses and do not get sick themselves, but can infect people around them with weak immunity.

Of course, this does not mean that all seemingly healthy men will become sources of HPV infection. Related studies have pointed out that if a man’s own immunity is strong enough, the HPV virus will be quickly cleared by the immune system after entering the body, and will not form a stable carrier state. In addition, condoms are used for protection throughout the process, and the probability of infecting a partner is almost negligible. In this case, healthy men will naturally not cause women to be infected with HPV.

In fact, there is no need to panic too much about HPV. Vaccines of different prices are now available for vaccination. Taking precautions when having sex and regular HPV screening for both parties can reduce the risk of infection to a very low level. If an infection is really detected, don’t rush to suspect each other. The most important thing is to first understand the subtype of the infection and do further screening.