Is HPV hereditary

My mother had cervical cancer as did I, could my mother have been a carrier? My daughter just found out last year she has HPV.
Thank you.

I don't think it's hereditary. It's generally passed through a sexual encounter, though I've heard of cases of virgins having hpv. I believe it could also be passed through to a fetus during birth if the mother has it.

While it's said that MOST cases of cervical cancer are caused by hpv, that doesn't mean ALL cases.

Don't know if this helps.

HollyK

Go to the Center for Disease Control's website for accurate information about HPV www.cdc.gov

Please read my previous posts on HPV- you can click on my name and view previous posts.

I did post a reference by the Mayo Clinic that HPV is the cause of most cervical cancer, and another reference that "most" was an estimate of 99.7% of cases in one study, so HPV is the cause of the great majority of cervical cancer cases.


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Regarding HPV and heredity:
As I understand it, HPV is similar to HIV in infection, though it can be caught by genital touching rather than just sexual relationships. Thus, HPV can be passed from mother to fetus, though that would be unusual. Also, you could inherit a weakened immune system, which might make you more likely to get a persistant strain of HPV. However, if you have made it into your 40's without having persistant HPV, the odds of getting it are very low unless you are extremely sexually active with people who have HPV (in a similar way to HIV). Thus, in that having a brother or sister with HIV would not necessarily imply that you would have HIV, neither would a family member with HPV imply that you have HPV, unless you have had it since birth, but you could inherit a weakened immune system.

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Here is a reference that I posted earlier about HPV- please get tested for the strains mentioned before making a decision about whether to remove your cervix.

Here's the HPV statement from the Netherlands:
A distinction is made between high-risk HPV types (16, 18) and low-risk HPV types (e.g., 6/11, 42, 43, and 44).1

The low-risk HPV types 6 and 11 are associated with
genital warts.

The results of studies of the relationship between high-risk HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33, and 35 and the prevalence of endocervical intraepithelial neoplasia or cervical carcinoma in situ are unequivocal.

Specifically, HPV type 16 is often found in such association and has the strongest connection to cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN).

Genital warts in women do not appear to indicate an elevated risk of genital carcinomas.

http://nhg.artsennet.nl/upload/104/guidelines2/E06.htm

-Torrie

Another note regarding your daughter- many people who are sexually active do acquire HPV for short periods of time, but their immune systems are able to repell the virus, much as someone with a strong immune system could repell the flu virus whereas it might be difficult for someone with a compromised immune system to do so. Thus your daughter could get tested once every 6 months or so to see if the HPV has gone away.

While about 50% of young people have HPV at some point in their 20's, it is only those with persistant HPV of 10 years or more, in the "high risk" strains that I indicate in the previous post, that develop cervical cancer.

-Torrie

Thank you so much for the info. I am just afraid that my daughter will develope cervical cancer. One more question is cervical cancer hereditary? When my dr. did my pap about 5 yrs ago he asked me if anyone in my family had cervical cancer.

No, cervical cancer isn't really hereditary. The great majority of cervical cancer is caused by HPV; thus, you must have persistant HPV for about 10 years in order to get cervical cancer.

Generally, what you'd inherit is a weakened immune system, which would make you more likely to get HPV, and then a small portion of people who get HPV go on to get cervical cancer.

It has only been known that HPV is the cause of nearly all cases of cervical cancer in the past few years; really, it would have been more appropriate for your doctor to ask if there was a family history of a compromised immune system than cervical cancer itself.

That HPV is the cause of nearly all cases of cervical cancer has lead to a change of thinking in doctors (or should lead to a change in thinking), that the cervix should automatically be removed during hysterectomy.

Now it is more appropriate to test for HPV first and have a woman decide whether to keep the cervix or not- if she still has HPV in her 40's, she would likely lean toward removal of the cervix, but if she doesn't have HPV in her 40's, then she would lean towards keeping the cervix, unless she has an immune system or a lifestyle that makes her prone to getting HPV at that point.

But in direct answer to your question, it is the compromised immune system that is more likely to be inherited than HPV itself, and nearly 100% of cervical cancer is not inherited since it is caused by HPV.

Hope that helps.

-Torrie

also HPV can lay dormant for a long time... I am a perfect example of that.. I hadn't had a pap smear for 10 yrs (yea I know it was stupid on my part) and then earlier this year starting having periods every 2 wks so finally went to a gyno. I had an abnormal pap & was tested with high risk hpv. How I know it lays dormant is I haven't been with anyone in about 6 yrs... and that was my ex... so it had only been him for about 12 yrs and I really don't think he messed around while we were together... I got really sick in DEC thru May and was in the hospital for a couple days in FEB so my immune system was shot... I think that allowed the HPV to take hold & started the changes on my cervix.
I'm now almost 35 and done having kids so I have opted for a hysterectomy due to the cin & a complex cyst and still bleeding every 2 weeks.

Hope all works out ok for you.

Thanks for all the info. Really cleared up a lot of things on my mind.