Genital human Papillomavirus or HPV is a very common infection. Sexually active people may have been infected by the HPV virus in one way or another and may not know it.

Symptoms may or may not happen depending on the infection that was involved in the HPV virus type. The types of HPV virus are more than 100. Even if the warts are barely noticeable, genital warts are some of the types of HPV.

Other cancers and cervical cancer are linked to some types of HPV even when there’s no growth of warts. Common warts that can be found on the feet and hands are some of the types of HPV.

No health problems arise even when a lot of people do not treat genital HPV. However, the danger of developing health complications such as anal or cervical cancer becomes a higher risk when the virus stays long in the body.

Symptoms

The skin and the mucous membranes such as the genital area are places that the HPV virus wants to live in. One of the first signs for an HPV infection is genital warts. The Genital warts have several appearances. They can take the form of a cauliflower. Sometimes there will be an appearance of multiple warts; sometimes there will only be one. They can be big or tiny. They can grow on the penis, anus, thigh, cervix, groin, and scrotum.

After weeks or months from an exposure to an HPV infection, genital warts will begin to appear. The infected person you got your HPV infection would not even know that he or she has it.

Cancer of the penis, cervical cancer, cancer of the anus, and cancer of the vulva are connected to other kinds of genital HPV infection.

Diagnosis

A doctor seeing a growth of genital warts could form an HPV infection diagnosis. However, warts that are connected to an HPV type may not necessarily be the one that produces cancer. It is another type of HPV causing cancer virus that can cause cancer in women which could get a diagnosis after a Pap test. The Pap test is the diagnostic tool doctors use to find precancerous shifts in the cervix or cervical cancer.

Of all HPV types, it has been noted that 70% of reported cervical cancers come from the 16 and 18 strain.

An HPV test is seldom given to under age 30 women as younger women could, without treatment clear HPV infection from their bodies.

In men, a diagnosis for an HPV infection can be formed when there is the presence of genital warts.

The best time to perform an HPV test on a woman would be in the age bracket of 30 and over. The test helps the doctor and the women find out if she has a low or high risk of getting cervical cancer.

There is also no need for an HPV test to be done to women who are trying to conceive unless her Pap test would register an abnormality. It is now a standard procedure to take a Pap smear during the first prenatal examination.