# My experience with HPV



## wokofshame

So I'm posting this because there's a massive stigma around having or having had STDs. Which is total bullshit.
When I had HPV symptoms I searched the entire internet, and every single person who wrote about having HPV wrote anonymously, even if it was years in their past.
So back in July of last year I started noticing tiny bumps below the head of my dick, above my foreskin. Tiny, as in head-of-a-pencil size. Maybe 5 or 6 of them, with 2 or 3 kind of running together. I've always been super-paranoid about STDs and had even gotten checked out twice in a year before for zits that turned out to be just zits, but these looked distinctly like my idea of genital warts.
There was this distinct sinking feeling of worry in my chest. Having an STD can feel shameful despite the fact that you didn't necessarily do the least thing wrong.
I was in a super-remote place at the time, so when i had phone reception I called Planned Parenthood, had a super-hard time finding a slot where a certified dick-and-vag observer, or whatever their title is, could look at my junk within my timeframe. There were lots of slots available to get your piss tested for gonorhea and the clap, and your saliva for HIV, but very few to get actually looked at physically. Women can have their pap smear results tested for HPV antibodies, but there is no such test for men.
So finally, after cancelling an appointment I couldn't make, riding trains hundreds of miles away, passing through several cities on my way with no available dick check-up sessions at PP, I finally made it to one in the U District in Seattle. I went thru all the regular questions then had a cool lady doctor look at me at and immediately confirm my HPV self-diagnosis.
Planned Parenthood in some states wants all kinds of money for their services if you have no health insurance. Tell them you are broke with no income and have 5 kids and their sliding scale will lower to zero, depending on the state.
She offered to prescribe Aldara, which is this expensive cream in tiny packets, but advised that the HPV would go away by itself without the cream and that the cream treated only the symptoms and not the cause. Because I wanted to be as proactive as possible, I took her up on the prescription.
I put on the Aldara several days in a row and i got the most horrible, painful burning feeling ever. What it does is burn your skin. Everywhere.
I threw the remaining packets out and adopted the "wait for it to clear" method of combat. Doing nothing to fight something you desperately want to be rid of is frustrating.
Around Xmas last year, my tiny bumps started to fade away, and by 6 months after they'd emerged, there was no trace left, and I've been clear ever since. Pretty much exactly the timeframe I had been told. That fall I had kept my beer drinking to a minimum, quit coffee, and eaten healthy food, largely to help my immune system work at full bore.
I had HPV and made it out alive and unscathed. So do millions of people every year. The doctor at PP told me i was the 4th person she had examined in the last 2 hours with HPV. It's super common. The only reason there is such a stigma around HPV is because nobody ever brings up "Oh, I had HPV" in conversation.
There is a new version of the Gardasil vaccine , Gardasil 9 which protects against 9 different strains of HPV. Get it from PP or a clinic.
Anway, if you have HPV, don't despair. It's the common cold of STDs and a ton of people you interact with every day have had it, you just don't know it. Take care of your immune system and your body will beat it.


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## iflewoverthecuckoosnest

STD stigma is bullshit. Most people have some form of hpv or herpes and just don't know it because they remain asymptomatic.

Good for you coming out about it. I've had a thing or two myself. 

STD's are very common. Practice safe sex, folks .


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## Tude

Set forth in total blunt truth info, thanks  I did not know the warts eventually go away, however when present, as I read, they can be passed.

I had a girlfriend, years ago, who found our her boyfriend developed genital warts and she was TRAUMATIZED - kept telling people they were THIS LONG, etc. She got annoying. Get to the truth about what it is and what to do for it.


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## FrumpyWatkins

I am pretty sure it is something like 1 in 3 people in their late 20s and older have been exposed to some variety of HPV. Most people younger get vaccinated in their teens nowadays in a lot of places, because of the concern for future cervical cancer. One of the reasons so many people have it and pass it is because no one says anything when they have it or do not even know they have it.


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## Alrats

I had a two year fight with HPV on my cervix, complete with doctors not telling me what the fuck was going on and me having to google shit. I ended up with pre-cancerous cells and having to get a LEEP procedure where they literally burned parts of my cervix off to get rid of the cells.
HPV is super common, like the cold, and most people will pass it in anywhere from 6 months to 2 years, but it's also very important to get tested and for cunted folks to get paps regularly.

The stigma around STI's is insane. HPV is a similar to the common cold and most folks out there have come into contact with Herpes sometime in their life (usually multiple times). When it comes to herpes, it's really honestly a skin condition. It's likely that you, the reader of this post, has it. You're just asymptomatic.

Be careful, be consensual, be real.


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