How can I turn negative after being infected with HPV?

The following article comes from Tencent Medical Code She Knows, the author Zhimei

After many women are tested for human papillomavirus (HPV), even if there is no disease, the fear of cervical cancer will immediately hang over their hearts.

So, eliminating HPV became the most important battle in their lives.

Whenever possible means to turn HPV negative, all of them will be used.

"Why do you work so hard, wash and apply medicine, but still can't turn negative!"

In fact, HPV infection is not so scary. Knowing the following points will allow you to coexist peacefully with the existing HPV infection. Maybe at a certain moment, it really disappears.

HPV infection, like a cold, is common

According to statistics, more than 80% of sexually active women have been infected with at least one or more HPV in their lifetime.

Getting HPV is like a cold, and for most people, it's easy to come and go.

Moreover, most HPV infections are also transient, with about 67% of HPV infections turning negative within one year [1], and about 90% of HPV infections turning negative within two years.

This shows that in order to turn HPV negative, autoimmune resistance is the key.

If you want to have a good immunity, you cannot rely on eating various supplements, but you must grasp every detail of life, such as a balanced diet, moderate exercise, adequate sleep, and a good mood.

It should be noted that persistent infection of high-risk HPV is a key factor in the occurrence of lesions, so we need to avoid persistent infection. In addition to enhancing immunity, we also need to do the following:

（1）such as avoiding premature sex and too many sexual partners;

（2）Prompt treatment of reproductive tract infections;

（3）Correct use of condoms, etc.

There is no cure for HPV negative

During the battle against HPV, the most common questions patients ask their doctors are:

"What medicine should I take?"

Some people believe that it is irresponsible for doctors not to prescribe medicines for themselves.

However, the truth is that there is no cure for HPV negative conversion.

The fundamental principle of using drugs to treat HPV is to strengthen the immunity of the local cervix, vaginal microenvironment or women's whole body.

After all, HPV is also a virus, and it is inseparable from a strong immune system to resist the virus.

If drug treatment is required, it should also be carried out under the guidance of a regular hospital specialist, and never buy drugs or health care products from non-medical institutions.

If it is a high-risk HPV infection, colposcopy is required to further confirm the diagnosis.

Low-grade disease, do not over-treat

After persistent HPV infection, a bad outcome is that the cells develop precancerous lesions, also known as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. It is usually divided into 3 grades according to the severity, namely CINI, CINII, CINIII.

Among them, CIN I is a low-grade cervical lesion, only 10% of which transform into CIN II or CIN III, and less than 1% progress to cervical cancer [2].

Therefore, when diagnosed with low-grade lesions, do not be overly fearful, direct physical therapy or surgery is a typical overtreatment.

But you must also be vigilant, review regularly, and let your doctor give you a treatment plan that suits you:

If it is caused by inflammation, actively treat inflammation, and if it is caused by virus, increase immunity.

When low-grade disease persists for more than 2 years, drug therapy or physical therapy (cryotherapy, laser, coagulation, coagulation, etc.) can be considered.

High-grade lesions must be treated immediately

Both CIN II and CIN III belong to high-grade cervical lesions, which are separated from cervical cancer. If they are allowed to develop, they may become malignant.

Currently, the treatment of high-grade lesions mainly includes ablative therapy and excisional therapy.

The former mainly includes freezing, laser, electrocoagulation, condensation, etc. The latter mainly includes cold knife cone cutting, LEEP knife and so on.

However, how to remove the lesions and the specific method must be professionally diagnosed and judged by a doctor, and careful consideration should be given before treatment.

After excision of cervical lesions, regular review of HPV and TCT is still required to prevent recurrence.

Summery

HPV infection is not terrible, nor is it invincible, maybe at a certain moment, it really turns negative.

At present, vaccination can effectively prevent virus infection. Even if the vaccine is temporarily unavailable, regular screening of cervical cancer can detect virus infection and lesions in time.

Only women who fully understand HPV can cope with HPV infection calmly.

References

[1] Rees CP, Brhlikova P, Pollock AM, et al. Will HPV vaccination prevent cervical cancer? [J]. J R Soc Med, 2020, 113(2): 64-78.

[2] Expert consensus on immune prevention of human papillomavirus-related diseases such as cervical cancer [J]. Chinese Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2019(08):761-803.

The Human Papillomavirus Real Time PCR Kit is an in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) kit, based on real-time PCR technology, for the detection of 18 HPV types (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 66, 68, 73, 53, 82, and 26) in cervical exfoliated cells in one reaction well. The kit identifies HPV16, HPV18, other HPV types and internal control (β-globin) using fluorescence channels: FAM, VIC, ROX and CY5. This kit contains primers and probes that are designed to target the L1, L2, and E1 genes of 18 HPV types. The amplicon length of each HPV type does not exceed 200 bp. A PCR fluorescence detection system is used to record the change in fluorescence emitted by the fluorescent probe at each PCR cycle during PCR amplification, which directly reflects the change in the PCR amplification yield.