vaginapagina | HPV contraction and detection lag time (Reply)

Hi. I already checked the HPV posts and my questions weren't really addressed, but if i've missed something, please direct me there.

I was told today that my Pap Smear results were abnormal and I tested positive for a high-risk strain of HPV. Shitty, but I know it's really common, and I'm young, so I figure I will do everything my doctors tell me, and hope for the best. I am scheduling a colposcopy at the nearest gyno (I'm living in a new town, and just went to a general physician for my pap) and after that I'll have a better idea of how to procede, but at the moment I'm concerned with notifying past sexual partners and making sure their current sexual partners have been tested recently.

I am currently in a long-term, monogomous relationship (we've been together for about a year and a half), but one thing we're trying to figure out is if I contracted it from him, or from someone else. I've already spoken with my most recent partner prior to the beginning of our relationship, and he said that his girlfriend (the only person he's been with since me) had a papsmear relatively early on in their relationship and it was normal, but has not had one since. My boyfriend's most recent partner prior to the beginning of our relationship also was tested early on in the period of time they were together because she was diagnosed with another sti (I can't remember what it is called, it results in lesions of a sort on the skin and is treated with a topical cream - he had a breakout and they went away, I don't believe I was infected because we figured out what his were early on and avoided skin to skin contact). Her papsmear came back normal (he thinks - they aren't on speaking terms, so he's not entirely sure) but I'm not sure how much time had passed since her last sexual partner before him or any details about that, so it may not tell us much.

So. My pertinent question is this: How long after exposure or contraction of HPV can it be detected? Is there a waiting period, or can it be detected immediately?

My hope is that if I can figure out a point in time when either my boyfriend or I was most likely infected, I can avoid awkward unnecessary phone calls to exes and put a couple of friends with whom I have shared sexual partners at ease to some degree.

I have one other secondary question, how concerned should I be about having sex without a condom with my boyfriend? I recently switched to the NuvaRing with the possibility of having sex without a condom in mind, however I don't want to pass HPV on to him if he doesn't already have it. I know that there is no sure way to test for HPV in men, but I'm assuming that he probably has it. We've always used condoms, but only during actual penetration, during foreplay we don't use condoms, and there is usually skin to skin contact. So he probably already has HPV right? And regardless of whether I gave it to him or he gave it to me, he probably has the same strain, so he's just about the safest partner I could be with, yeah? Or do you guys still think it's a bad idea to have sex without a condom?

Sorry this got long, thanks for your responses.