After first learning that you’ve become infected, a normal question to ask is “Is HPV curable?” Unfortunately, the short answer to this question is “No”. Once you have contracted the HPV virus, it will most likely stay in your body for the rest of your life. This statement, however, comes with a caveat.
Is HPV Curable in Some Cases?
Although there is no cure for HPV, researchers report that nearly 90% of all infections clear themselves within a period of two years. This means that your immune system will rid your body of the virus on its own in the vast majority of cases. For the remaining 10% of infections, however, things can become a bit more complicated.
Treatment for HPV
Because most cases of HPV infection do not produce any symptoms, and relatively few of them involve the types of HPV that can lead to cervical cancer (HPV 16 and 18 in particular), your physician may not consider treatment to be necessary. This is because the most common symptoms of HPV in women are genital warts which, although unsightly, are basically harmless. With that said, a wide range of treatments for warts is available.
Treating Genital Warts
If your particular HPV infection results in the appearance of genital warts, the first thing you should know is that you have not contracted one of the high-risk forms of the virus. The strains of human papillomavirus that cause warts (usually HPV 6 or 11) are relatively innocuous and do not lead to cervical cancer or any other serious health complications.
Treating genital warts can be done at either your doctor’s office or in the privacy of your own home with the aid of a prescription, topical cream. These creams (available by the commercial names of Aldara and Condylox) are applied directly to the warts and cause them to gradually shrink, dry up and fall off.
For patients who are looking for more immediate methods of removing genital warts, your physician can apply a variety of treatments including: cryotherapy (killing the wart with liquid nitrogen), electrocautery (burning with electricity), excision (surgically cutting off the warts), laser removal, and trichloracetic acid. It should be pointed out that most doctors prefer not to use these treatments because they generally result in scarring and present risks (mainly infection) not found with less intrusive options.
Treating High-Risk Strains of HPV
In cases where a woman has been diagnosed with one of the so-called “high-risk” strains of HPV (i.e. those that are linked to cervical and other forms of cancer), her physician will typically prescribe a regimen of regular checkups and close monitoring for any signs of cell changes. Because there is no way to actually treat the virus itself, this approach involves a lot of waiting and watching.
As pointed out previously, approximately nine-in-ten cases of HPV infection will clear themselves within two years or less. Fortunately, this is also true of high-risk HPV, so many women who undergo the aforementioned monitoring are pleasantly surprised to eventually learn that the virus has disappeared from their system.
For those who are not as fortunate and do experience cell changes in the cervix, treatments will usually include: conization (a biopsy that remains affected tissue), cryotherapy, and Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedures (electrically excising abnormal cervical tissue). When the virus has been detected early, these procedures are extremely effective at preventing the development of cancer.
Some Parting Thoughts
Although there is no cure for HPV, most of the more than 100 known strains of the virus carry no significant risk of health complications. Living with HPV, for most women, means that they simply must monitor their sexual health more closely.
“Is HPV curable?” No, but that doesn’t mean that your life will never be the same either.