Telling Your Partner

One of the most common questions we’re asked if patients should tell their partner. It’s a moral dilemma which can end a relationship or marriage, especially if your partner doesn’t accept that the virus was dormant during your relationship, but as the result of infidelity.

There is no single uniform answer. Each relationship is different, and no matter what you decide, HPV will impact your life and relationships to some degree.

Having HPV doesn’t always mean that you or your partner have done anything wrong. It simply means you’ve been exposed to a very common, contagious virus.

You will need to ask yourself some tough questions: If this is indeed a case of infidelity, can our relationship survive? Can we go long enough without having sex until I’m no longer contagious? How do I explain the sudden need for a condom? Will he understand that I was infected before we met? If I don’t tell her, we have protected sex and she still gets infected, what happens to us then? Can I let her get infected?…