FAQs

I am a lesbian. My new partner informed me that she has human papilloma virus. Can I get this if she performs oral sex on me? Or vice versa? Can I get it by just touching her vaginal fluids?

Answer

Women who have sex with women are at risk of contacting HPV just as women who have sex with men.

The available research on sexually transmissible infections and women who have sex with women is very scarce and only small studies have been done. However research suggests that one in five women with no history of sex with men have human papilloma virus. (Rankow, E. and Tessaro, I. (1998). Cervical cancer risk and papanicolou screening in a sample of lesbian and bisexual women, The Journal of Family Practice, 47(2), pp. 139 - 143).

Human papilloma virus or the wart virus is a common sexually transmitted infection. 75% of sexually active 15 - 49 year olds have the wart virus or have had it in the past. Only 25% of people show no signs of ever having HPV.

Most people who have HPV have no idea they carry the infection. There are more than 200 types of wart virus that can infect human skin and about 20 of these also infect the genital skin. See http://www.fpnsw.org.au/sex-matters/factsheets/71.html for more information.

Genital human papilloma virus is mainly transmitted through physical contact during vaginal, anal or oral sex. It appears to be passed on through direct skin-to-skin contact. http://www.womhealth.org.au/factsheets/genitalHPV.htm HPV can also be transmitted with vaginal secretions and on sex toys.

To prevent recurrences you need to look after your immune system with a healthy diet and get plenty of exercise and rest.

By the way, smokers are much more likely to pick the virus up in the first place and carry it for longer - so if you're a smoker, this is a great opportunity to stop smoking.

See the girl2girl website http://www.girl2girl.info/ for more info on this.

Also lesbianSTD.com is another very useful site: http://depts.washington.edu/wswstd/

For women who have sex with women, safe sex includes the use of dams (protective latex sheets), condoms (on sex toys) and gloves for fisting or fingering, and regular STI testing. Both women can have STI tests if they have any concerns about possible exposure.