(no subject)

[ardat-lili.livejournal.com]

So I had my biopsy today. Which consisted of taking 3 different samples. I had previously been under the impression that I didn't have HPV, miscommunication, I suppose, because they told me I have it for sure today. And then they sent me packing, back into the now horridly scary, lonely world. I go back next week to see if the samples were cancerous or not. For the time being, I'm just trying to adjust to accepting I have HPV. I wrote more about it in my own journal, the whole ordeal.. How have you accepted this?..For those afflicted?.. I'm afraid of being alone forever.

Comments

[shadowconn.livejournal.com]

If that many women have it then twice as many men ought to have it. Why do we only hear about it in wmen? Obviously it was given to you by a man.

[enigmae.livejournal.com]

I think women are just diagnosed more often. From what I've read there's no test for a man to tell whether he has it. The only way to know in a man is if he has symptoms (warts). In a woman however, it's diagnosed by pap smears. Also, women are more likely to have symptoms from std's in general than men are.

[oceandream9.livejournal.com]

I think women are diagnosed more because we go to our doctor's more (specifically gynocologists). Women tend to care more about their reproductive health more than men, and are more likely to not fear their image by asking whether there is a problem or not. Not only that, but women tend to show signs of HPV (not including genital warts), and are able to see the abnormal cells in their cervix. Men RARELY have issues with the non genital wart strain of HPV.

Re:

[shadowconn.livejournal.com]

Ah . . . . That sucks for women. TOo bad there isn't equal symptoms or something. That way the spread of the desease could be slowed.

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[oceandream9.livejournal.com]

Well, yes and no. I mean, the less anyone has to deal with the disease the better. HPV really isn't an awful disease, though unchecked it can be. But if you're going to get any STD, i guess that is the one.
I think it'd be best if std's just didn't exist at all, but that's just wishful thinking :)

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[shadowconn.livejournal.com]

*nod*

[enigmae.livejournal.com]

You may be right that men rarely have serious issues with HPV, but it can increase the risk of penile cancer. I have no idea of the risk of this compared to the risk of cervical cancer for women, but it is a parallel.

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[oceandream9.livejournal.com]

I spoke to my doctor about it, and she mentioned the, as she put it, "so small a risk of penile cancer that the medical community isn't even sure it has anything to do with HPV." She made it sound like men get off pretty easy with this strain, and that the correlation may not even be a direct one.

[enigmae.livejournal.com]

Hmm...well, that's good news for guys.

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[oceandream9.livejournal.com]

Yeah, go figure.