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Symptoms

Ingrid Kissinger, a nurse practitioner with Planned Parenthood of Summit, Portage and Medina counties, says the dysplasia in Shelly’s cervix is only one type of cell change that can be found with some strains of active HPV. The other common symptom is genital warts, or condyloma. Both of these cell changes can be found inside and outside the bodies of males and females. 

It is specific to no particular age or ethnic group, Kissinger explains, but it does depend on the sexual activities in an individual’s life. The CDC estimates 50 to 75 percent of the reproductive population has been infected with HPV.
“It affects all age groups,” she says. “Anyone who comes into contact with it can get it. Of course, it is more likely to occur in people who have new, unprotected sexual encounters.

“Many people who have a genital HPV infection do not even know they have it. The virus can live in the skin and tissue and not cause any symptoms. Other times, it can cause dysplasia and genital warts.”
Kissinger says genital warts aren’t always visible to the naked eye, but they are typically shaped like small, hard spots with a “cauliflower-like” appearance. These warts can be found on the penis, scrotum, vagina, cervix, vulva, anus and urethra.
Others, like Shelly, experience no outward symptoms because the lesions are hidden deep inside their bodies.

“Women can have it on the inside of their bodies and not even know it,” says Jennifer D’Abreau, a doctor of osteopathic medicine at DeWeese Health Center. “They may not even find out until they get a Pap test performed.”

Annual trips to the gynecologist are a must for sexually active women to protect against the dangers of HPV.

“Right now, it is the most effective way to prevent it from becoming something worse,” Kissinger says. That something worse could be cancer. The CDC says about 10 of the estimated 30 genital strains of HPV can, in some rare cases, lead to cervical cancer. D’Abreau says that some abnormal cell growth is considered “precancerous,” or it could develop into cancer if left untreated.

“We do not see cancer here very often,” she says of the health center. “But it is possible.”

The health center would not comment on the number of HPV cases detected or treated there.

According to the American Social Health Association, more than 14,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed each year. Kissinger says that one of the top factors leading to the development of cervical cancer is untreated cell changes from HPV. 

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