Protection Against HPV Infection and Transmission

Knowing whether you are susceptible to an infection, immune to an infection, or transmitting an infection is such an important topic, but trying to get all those questions answered, is not always possible, but really requires a personal consultation with your gyno. If you have gotten a vaccine against the major types of HPV (16,18,6,11) if you had never contracted any of those viruses research tells us to tell our patients that for up to five years the data is holding that you are both protected aginst the disease and against the precancer and cancer it causes. The vaccine Gardasil is approved to protect you from both cervical and anal cancer, and it is approved for males as well. It protects males and females against the main causes of genital warts as well. In Europe there are some studies of patients out 9 years after vaccines and the protection seems to be holding. But it is hard to know if you are protected still. Unlike the simple blood test we can draw to see if you are immune to chicken pox, or German Measles (rubella) or the cat feces disease of toxoplasmosis, there is no immunologic test of protection that has yet to be identified for HPV disease. So how do you know if your vaccine is still working? It seems that we should be able to find the antibody produced in your system after being vaccinated and then see if it is still in your blood. But that's probably not going to really tell us what we need to know. Even after Hep B vaccination, eventually proof of the vaccination slips out of the blood stream of many individuals who have still been proven to be resistant to infection. But our body has a way of quick immune memory whe re-exposed to something we were vaccinated against. This is called an animistic response, and it helps us respond. For individuals who had HPV in the past and have now cleared their virus, are they protected too? A trickier question to answer. Again, we don't really have blood tests to know for sure, and only recently have we been able to get HPV tests that can help answer this question. You can be tested for HPV 16 and 18, as well as being tested for the whole group of HPV viruses that cause cervical cancer. You can begin to understand if you are possibly still infected, or if you have cleared your virus. If you haven't been tested, about 8 or 9 out of 10 women can rest assured that they have cleared their virus. Women usually clear in about 2 years. Guys typically, we think, clear faster. Perhaps in as fast as 6 months. So keep using those condoms and spermacide for the first couple of years that you have a new partner. And then see if HPV testing is indicated for you.

Passing Your Uterine Lining, Menstrual Period Norms

Decidual Cast Periods can be fairly easy, passing some tissue at a time, or off can come the whole lining in one piece called a decidual cast. Generally the lining of the uterus is only 6-8 mm thick at the time of the menstrual period, and it is shed gradually, a few cells at a time. The decidual cast is when the entire lining passes spontaneously. It's not uncommon, but it usually both uncomfortable, and alarming to some. But us women are designed to have some sort of periods Or Not? We have to pass tissue each month. Or Not? Are they good for us? Or Not? Do we want them? Or Not? Is this something that is individual? Or Not? It's a complex topic that I will be discussing a lot over my time in this blog. So lets start with basics: How much do we bleed and what are we loosing, and just what was this that the patient passed? And another basic: track your periods, and the Women's Health Practice site http://www.womenshealthpractice.com/media/pdf/menstrual_chart.pdf you...

Post-Endometrial Ablation Syndrome

If you have had an endometrial ablation and have developed symptoms of pelvic pain you might have post endometrial ablation syndrome. What is post-endometrial ablation syndrome? It is a constellation of symptoms due to entrapped blood or tissue within a uterus that has previously undergone an endometrial ablation. We are able to diagnose this at Women's Health Practic e but occasionally other conditions are causing similar symptoms. Other complications of endometrial ablation include pregnancy, risks from pre-existing conditions such as a polyp or fibroid, an infection of the uterus, or a pregnancy. If you have had a tubal ligation then it is possible that the condition could be post-ablation tubal sterilization syndrome. The ablation procedure is designed to destroy all lining tissue, but in fact there is no way to confirm the completeness of the ablation. It is thought that either residual or regrowth of the tissue is producing the symptoms of post-endometrial ablation syndrom...

You Have an IUD: But a Positive Pregnancy Test

Fortunately IUD pregnancy failures are rare. But if you have an IUD for contraception, and you get a positive pregnancy test, you probably ask yourself, what next? Well, make your gyno appointment promptly, this is a condition that is not typically an emergency, but it can be and it’s not handled over the phone or on a blog, or through self diagnosis! That being said, some researchers from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas decided to look back at over 4100 women who had IUDs and of those 42 cases who became pregnant in their institution, over about a year period of time, to help understand what these women could expect when they got to their gyno and what actually happened to their pregnancies. Accurate pregnancy diagnosis, pelvic examination, and pelvic ultrasound were the cornerstones of the evaluations. They had very specific ways they looked at their ultrasound to prove there was no pregnancy in the fallopian tube, or partially in the fallopian tube...

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