[indianagirl1984]

I've not been so great when it comes to my sexual health, but now I've found something to be concerned about. I think I might have HPV, only because I think my boyfriend has it (and he's been with one of my friends who has it, but got it taken care of, twice), and we've stupidly had unprotected sex. I found one very small wart. I've never been to the gyno, never been on birth control, and with my boyfriend of 8 months only, have not been very careful when it comes to protecting myself during sex. He's had a huge break-out and right now we're not having sex, and I'm making sure he gets it checked out and taken care of.

I'm 22 and I've never been to the gynecologist, which is another concern, but I just have this huge fear of going, and my mom never really talked to me about that stuff or took me (she totally regrets that, but she's one of those parents that doesn't accept that her daughters might be having sex). Now that I've had multiple partners and I'm in a long term relationship and found the recent wart, I need to go. Another problem is, I'm a very very poor college student without a DIME of extra money, and no health insurance. I want to get this HPV thing checked out ASAP, but I don't know where to go, and I don't know what's affordable.

I want to be able to have kids, and I'm also afraid that it might be impossible for me to have them...concerning all the unprotected sex I've had with my boyfriend, and no pregnancy. I'm not stupid. I know what I should do, I just do the opposite for some reason. But it's my health, and lately I've been wanting to improve it and be A LOT more responsible. I want to do that while I'm still young, and before I start a family and get married.

So any advice would be great. Who should I go to? How much do HPV tests/treatments cost? What can make my fears of going go away?

I'm clueless. Thank God I found this site!

[Melikins]

Try Plan Parenthood

Well Im sorry for your findings and such. But you really need to get checked out. Since you dont have alot of extra money to spare maybe you should check out your local planned parenthood. I am pretty sure they base your cost on how much money you make. Dont be scared of going to the gyno and getting checked out. Its a part of life and all of us women need to go through it. I wish you luck and I hope you are able to take care of this.

[StacyRay]

sorry no cure

As a women who contracted HPV from a none loving relationship, he never told me he had it and it was just sex once you've contracted it you cant completly get rid of it> It may go away visually but not physically, so please be honest with anyone you may sleep with.

[crow3217]

i agree, go to your local planned parenthood, or county health clinic. they have sliding scale and will base payments on your income, if you're too broke they'll do it for sometimes free. you can also get free condoms and birth control at those most of the time too. at least where i come from. from reading your post, it seems as if someone has told you that warts can be 'taken care of'... it's not curable. they can be frozen off, or whatever, but the HPV virus lives there. i have seen in some recent studies that in healthy young women that dont smoke, sometimes, the HPV virus will go away within the first year or two, but not always. so it's important that you go to the clinic and get checked out, so that if you dont have it, they can teach you how to NOT get it from your b/f. from what i understand, you can get it even if he wears a condom cuz it's on the scrotum sack as well. plz make sure you go, HPV is the cause of cervical cancer, and can cause infertility as you stated before... having a gyno appt isnt that bad, and if you want to have kids, you might want to start getting to those appts to be healthy now. good luck, and hope you'll be ok.

[hairgirl88]

If you are having sex, protected or not, you should get checked for STD's about every 6 months or so. Or sooner! There are too many STD's out there that wont give you any symptoms and if left untreated you can become sterile. You owe it to yourself and it is the responsible thing to do. As far as the exam goes, its really not that bad!Your doc has done thousands and seen it all. don't be afraid of judgement. Just do it, youll be glad you did!