Diagnosis

How do I know if I have got HPV?

HPV is very common and most of us will have an HPV infection at some point in our lives.

The HPV virus is good at "hiding" and a person usually won't know if they have or have not got HPV. Being a carrier of HPV without any symptoms is common and normal as the majority of people with HPV don't know they have it.

A person will know if they have HPV if they have visible genital warts or if they have a positive HPV test result as part of cervical screening. Those tests are still limited in terms of which HPV types they test for.

• If an HPV test is positive, it means that a person has one of the high-risk types of HPV. There will then usually be further testing in discussion with your healthcare provider.
•  If this HPV test is negative, it means that the high-risk types of HPV being tested for were not detectable.

HPV tests used for cervical screening are geared to high-risk HPV types and these do not include all the types of HPV.

Unfortunately, there is no test for HPV in either males or females that will test for all the types of HPV. This means that HPV testing is not part of a routine sexual health check up.