I’ve just graduated from college; I’m excited about searching for a job and moving my boyfriend to Houston from New Jersey. The last thing I needed was a phone call from my doctor a couple weeks ago telling me my last pap test came back HPV positive.
Once again, I face the uncertainty of doctor’s appointments and surgery and being cured. HPV is a virus, so my body is supposed to fight it off just like it would the flu or the chicken pox. Unfortunately, my immune system is not doing its job.
I have another appointment in June where my doctor will perform a colposcopy. That lovely word means that my doctor will “use a special magnifying device to look at [my] cervix,” according to WebMD. “If a problem is seen during a colposcopy, a small sample of tissue (biopsy) may be taken from the cervix or from inside the opening of the cervix.”
This colposcopy will determine whether or not I will need surgery again.
I worry, because if the HPV escalates farther than it did the last time and more drastic surgical measures are needed at some point, then it could jeopardize my ability to have children. Being a mother is what I’ve wanted more than anything in the world for as long as I can remember. There would be no point in living any longer if I were not able to conceive my own child.
After allowing my article on HPV to be re-printed in the Houston Chronicle I got some unwarranted negative feedback. It led me to want to clarify some facts, in particular my own past sexual activity and how easily HPV can be contracted by people who aren’t even sexually active.
“HPV through routes other than sexual is definitely possible,” according to the Health Science Report website. “One may be exposed to HPV simply by shaking hands as suggested in the finding of HPV virus under fingernails.”
When I was first diagnosed with HPV I had only been in two relationships where intercourse was a factor. Both of those relationships were completely monogamous and in the case of one, I was practically engaged. There was no case of “casual sex” as people love to throw out there. One of my favorite quotes from the television series The Golden Girls is from an episode regarding the HIV virus in which Blanche tells Rose, “this is not a bad person’s disease.” Neither is HPV.
Regardless, I now have the disease and I have to do whatever is necessary to fight it and win. I really cannot afford another surgery emotionally or financially so I have to hope that it doesn’t come down to that again. When it comes down to it, that’s really the only option I have.
