HPV test

Your doctor can detect warts and other lesions by visual inspection. As part of a pelvic examination, your doctor may be able to identify some otherwise invisible warts in the genital tissue by applying acetic acid to areas of suspected infection. This process makes the infected areas whiten when they are examined by a procedure called colposcopy.

Your doctor might also take a small piece of tissue (called a biopsy) from the cervix and examine it under a microscope. When either the cervical smear test or the biopsy indicates a condition that could lead to cancer in some women (called intraepithelial neoplasia), the HPV test can determine if you are infected with a strain of HPV that increases the chance that cancer would develop if you don’t receive treatment.

Women and men who are sexually active with more than one partner — or whose partner has more than one sex partner — should have regular examinations for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Current national policy in Australia is that all women between the ages of 18 and 69 should have a smear test every 2 years, to screen for cancer or situations that may develop into cancer. The smear test can also often detect HPV infection.

HPV infection is very common and in most people it clears up naturally in about 8-14 months. There are a number of different types of HPV, some of which have a low risk of causing cancer and others that have a high risk. In Australia, the HPV test is used to determine if the person remains infected with HPV following treatment.

There are over 100 different types of HPV, including some that affect the genitals

• HPV types 6 and 11 typically cause venereal warts, and (along with types 42, 43, and 44) have a low risk of progressing to cancer.
• HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 68, 73 and 82 have a higher risk of progressing to cancer.

While the test can be helpful in guessing the 'likelihood' that cancer will develop if you receive no treatment, there is no guarantee that the predicted risk is correct, since other factors seem to be involved in development of cancer.

HPV is one of the most commonly transmitted STDs in the world. In 90% of women who have cervical HPV infection, the infection becomes undetectable within two years. A few women have persistent infection, which is a key risk factor for cervical cancer. Regular cervical smear tests can monitor this risk and provide an early warning that you might need treatment.

Since April 2007, the Australian Government has provided a vaccine against HPV, Gardasil®, for all females aged 12-13 years through the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Immunisation Program.