Thursday, September 08, 2011
andi
First time I heard about HPV, I thought it was purely an STD. Which it is, actually, then later I learned that it could apply to any old wart you have on any non-genital part of your body. So I could have a plantar wart on my foot and it is HPV! (correct me if I'm wrong). Just like good and bad cholesterol, there are also good and bad - in this case, safe and ugly and bad and life-threatening - kinds of HPV.
HPV first made medical news when it was linked to cervical cancer. It continues to make big waves because it is so prevalent (one in 10 women have it) and so life threatening (HPV causes almost all cervical cancers, 85% of anals cancers, and 70% of vaginal cancers) at the same time. More recently more studies have been conducted on the link between HPV and ovarian cancer. It gets all technical and convoluted, but you can read the whole article on HPV and ovarian cancer here.
