I spoke to my consultant about this at the beginning of my journey. He said they used to think your body cleared the virus in a couple of years of getting it, but they now think as there is no way to test for it unless its active that once you have it you have it for good and in most people it will just stay dormant in your body and not cause problems and if it does become active it can not cause problems and go dormant again. He said they aren't 100% sure why it becomes active in some people and not others and why when active causes problems for some and not others but stress or being run down etc could be why it becomes active, which i think was the case for me as looking back i had had about 4 years of stress inducing life situations which i hadn't realised had affected me. He said the best thing to do is try to be as healthy as possible to keep it dormant. Obviously practicing safe sex will stop you passing it on or contracting another strain, but he said the majority of people who have had sex will be infected unless you have only had sex with one person and that person has only ever had sex with you. Hope this makes sense I think I've waffled a bit. Xx
Thanks bungle for that answer , I didn’t really understand what my colorectal surgeon said when they first found the cancer .. I have been with my partner 3 plus years and he is anxious to know more about the virus .. it’s true about stress as the past 5 years have been difficult for me but I assumed once the cancer went , so did the virus but then we are monitored for 5 years in case it comes back … could we then be reinfected ? It’s a weird one as no test like the smears !!! Hope all good with you?
The virus could become active again or it may not and even if it does it may not cause you any problems. It's a weird thing I obviously had active hpv in the bum which caused my anal cancer but part of my tests etc was a smear and that was negative for hpv as it wasn't active there. I'm not a doctor but from what my consultant said the best thing you and your partner can do is be healthy as you can, eat right, exercise, enough sleep, don't drink or smoke and try to have as stress free life as possible which will all help keep your immune system strong. This is what I'm trying to do, I definitely won't be perfect but will do the best I can with the things I can control. Most importantly don't stress about it. Xx
