How Can I Get an HPV Test?
Although the HPV virus is a very common one in the human population, we really have no specific test – such as a blood test – to detect it in the general population. For women who are at risk for cervical cancer, there is a test called the “digene HPV test” that is usually done at the same time as a pap smear. This test can detect the presence on the cervix of the strains of HPV virus that are thought to be most likely to cause cervical cancer. This test is used for women over 30 at risk, and for women under 30 who have already been shown with a pap test to have abnormal cervical cells that may be indicative of a problem.
It is currently believed that there are over 250 strains or types of the HPV virus, and symptoms vary greatly amongst these strains. So unless you have specific symptoms, there is really no way to know whether or not you carry the virus. That is why it is important to educate yourself about it and take care of your health accordingly.
There are, however, tests that screen for some of the symptoms and conditions that the HPV virus causes. For instance, if you have genital warts, you can be screened for HPV origin of the condition; types 6 and 11 of the HPV virus cause about 90% of cases of genital warts.
Women should be routinely screened for changes on the cervix that are related to pre-cancerous conditions. This test is usually referred to as a “pap test” or “pap smear” and your gynecologist does it during your annual checkup when he takes a small swab of the skin cells on the surface of your cervix, and sends them to the lab to be analyzed for any abnormality.
Other types of cancers related to HPV infection are rare, and there is no known test to determine whether an individual is at risk. For example some strains of HPV can cause cancer of the head and neck, cancer of the throat, cancer of the penis, the vulva or the anus. You do not know that you have these cancers until you develop symptoms and they are diagnosed by your physician. But even if one of these cancers is diagnosed, it is difficult to determine medically whether the cancer is the result of a prior infection with a strain of HPV.
So although you cannot be tested to determine whether you have HPV, you can educate yourself about what the HPV virus is and know as much about HPV prevention as possible. If you are an adult who is sexually active, or who has been sexually active in the past, you are statistically more likely to have contracted at least one strain of the HPV virus. If you are a person with a weakened immune system because of a chronic disease of any type, you may be even more susceptible to catching HPV and to developing the symptomatic conditions related to it.
Protecting yourself from the common strains of HPV that cause “common warts” is a matter of simple hygiene. Protecting yourself from the more dangerous and invisible strains of HPV that can lead to cancer, involves practicing safe sex and having yourself screened routinely for the types of cancers that HPV causes.
There is a lot of information out there for women on the importance of routine screening for cervical cancers. But if you are a man, you need to be informed as well. In particular, gay and bisexual men are statistically at an increased risk for HPV related cancers. Some physicians use the Pap Test to screen for anal cancer in gay men: this test can be used to detect abnormal pre-cancerous cells of the anus in the same way that it can detect abnormal cells of the cervix in women. Men who know they are HIV-positive have weakened immune systems that may be particularly vulnerable to developing a life-threatening condition related to HPV.
