HPV Symptoms in Females

What does HPV in females look like?

80% of unvaccinated adults will pick up HPV at some point in their life. Most commonly there are no symptoms.

Sometimes HPV can develop into warts although it is important to remember that not everyone gets warts from HPV.

For anyone with a cervix, HPV may be identified during cervical screening which is now primarily an HPV test. 

It is possible to test for some types of HPV but HPV testing is not part of a routine sexual health check up for males or females. This is in part because in some people the virus is "hibernating" at levels that are not detectable by testing. 

• If an HPV test is positive, it means 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 an 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.