HPV Infection: symptoms, how it causes cervical cancer

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a DNA virus that belongs to the genus Papillomavirus in the family Papillomaviridae. There is not only one type of HPV, they come in different forms, and infection with different HPV subtypes can lead to different types of disease.

Where does HPV appear?

HPV is everywhere, it is in your daily life. Swimming pools, saunas, bathrooms, toilets …… puts you on the defensive.

Not only that, but your sexual partners often carry HPV, but men often have no visible symptoms of the infection. One blissful night, HPV is secretly transferred again without your knowledge ……

What are the symptoms of HPV infection?

• HPV infects the skin and mucosal tissues of the body.
• Most HPV types cause common skin warts, often on the hands or feet, but they can appear anywhere on the body, such as the vagina, anus, nose, mouth and throat.
• The lesions are cauliflower-like, pink or flesh-colored, soft to the touch, painful or itchy, and can be seen in or around the anus, upper thighs, groin area, scrotum, and penis.
• The most well-known is that HPV can cause cervical cancer, and 70% of cervical cancers are caused by HPV types 16 and 18.

How does HPV cause cervical cancer?

• The ability of HPV to cause disease depends on a duel between HPV and the autoimmune system. When your immune system is weakened and cannot clear the pesky HPV virus, HPV will take the opportunity to burrow into the gaps in your skin mucosa, keep taking root and multiplying, and also hijack the cervical cells, stealing nutrients from normal cervical cells and giving birth to generations of children and grandchildren.
• Once your immune system continues to be lazy, HPV will continue to invade and expand until it destroys all your cells layer by layer. The more layers you destroy, the more severe the lesions become, from cervical precancer CIN1-CIN2-CIN3, the higher the disease level becomes and the more severe it becomes. If there has been no intervention and treatment until the whole layer of the cervix is involved, it becomes cervical cancer.

How to stop HPV infection from becoming cervical cancer?

But, don’t worry too much. There are still many ways for doctors to stop the HPV virus from expanding its territory. Cervical cancer can also be screened for at the time of precancerous lesions.

For example, today’s three-stage diagnosis of cervical cancer is

• Combined HPV + TCT screening
• Colposcopy
• Pathological tissue biopsy

The HPV vaccine has been considered a very effective vaccine since 2006, especially for young, not yet sexually active women.

However, since HPV can also cause anal cancer, penile cancer, and oropharyngeal cancer, HPV vaccination is recommended for both boys and girls. Also, HPV vaccination for men can prevent the transmission of HPV to women.

Women can prevent HPV infection through HPV vaccination, there is a good cervical cancer screening tool HPV+TCT to help detect cervical lesions, and there are also appropriate procedures to treat early cervical lesions. So, don’t worry too much about HPV infection, strengthening immunity and regular cervical screening is the key to prevent and treat cervical cancer!