Cervical Cancer and HPV -- A Concern for Couples. 

     Cervical cancer is caused by a virus – the Human Papillomavirus or “HPV”. There are more than 100 viral types in this “family” of virus. We get the HPV from having close contact with someone else who has it. The HPV gets into the cells on a woman’s cervix when she has genital to genital contact with a person who has the virus.
    Younger women, smokers, and those with multiple partners are at greater risk of acquiring HPV. One of the problems is that women and men usually do NOT know that they have this virus in the skin on their genitals because it does NOT cause any symptoms. A man does NOT need to be examined if his partner has an abnormal Pap test.
    Once the HPV gets into the cervical cells, it begins a slow process to take over the cells and eventually turn them into cancer. NOTE -- not everyone who gets the virus will get cancer.
    There are NO symptoms when the virus gets into the cells. The ONLY way for a woman to identify cervical cell changes is to get a Pap test on a regular basis.     (Click here for more on HPV)