Unveiling HPV: Understanding, Prevention, and Resources

Join Liv Taylor and Deepa Upadhyaya as they uncover the ins and outs of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in this lively episode. They'll explore what HPV is, how it spreads, and what it means for your health. Discover the scoop on preventing HPV with vaccines, how it's diagnosed and treated, and where to find awesome resources to learn more. Get ready to laugh and learn as they break down HPV in a way that's both informative and entertaining!

Our theme song is by Seth Makes Music.
This podcast is produced by Giulia Ortiz and supported by the Community Podcast Initiative.

Resources:

Mount Royal University Wellness Services
Call: (403) 440-8877
https://www.mtroyal.ca/CampusServices/WellnessServices/

Community Health Center Alberta
Call: 811
Community Health Centres | Alberta Health Services

HPV Site
Resources – HPVinfo.ca

Transcript

Liv Taylor  0:06  

Welcome to the Live Well Podcast hosted by the Healthy Campus Team of Wellness Services. My name is Liv Taylor and my pronouns are she/her and I'm a fourth year general science student here at MRU. I'm also a senior lead Peer Health Educator with the Healthy Campus Team. I wanted to acknowledge that we are on treaty seven land and we're excited that you are here with us today. The Live Well Podcast is a series focused on the voices and experiences of our students, staff and faculty here at MRU. We intend this series to be conversation based informal and all about the experiences and insights of our Mount Royal community. I'm joined today by Deepa Upadhyaya for part one of our sexual health podcast series to discuss human papilloma virus or HPV. Before we start, I'd like you to introduce yourself Deepa, your pronouns and your affiliation with the university.

Deepa Upadhyaya  0:54  

Thank you. My name is Deepa Upadhyaya, and, my pronouns are she/her, and I am an associate professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and I'm also the Academic Director of The Bachelor of midwifery program.

Liv Taylor  1:08  

Awesome. Thank you. So in today's podcast, we'll be discussing what HPV is, how it can be prevented, diagnosed and treated and what resources are available for listeners to learn more about HPV. Okay, so to get started, I wanted to ask you deeper what is HPV and how exactly does someone contract HPV?

Deepa Upadhyaya  1:28  

Thanks for that question. HPV, also known as human papilloma virus, is the most common sexually transmitted or STI in the world today. It typically affects most people at some point in their life. There are about 100 different types of HPV that we know of that affect different parts of the body. 15 of those are about our high risk and cause abnormal or can cause abnormal cells in the cervix leading to cervical cancer if it's left undetected. Because it's the most common STI in the world, part of that is because it's highly contagious, and it can be spread skin to skin in the genital area. Penetration is not required, during or during genital oral or anal sex. 

Liv Taylor  2:15  

Okay, and so you just said that it is the most common STI in the world today. So how prevalent is HPV in Canada specifically? 

Deepa Upadhyaya  2:24  

Yeah, approximately 75% of sexually active Canadians will have one HPV infection in their lifetime. The highest rate is for people between the ages of 15 and 24.

Liv Taylor  2:35  

Okay, great, thank you. That's some great foundational knowledge that we're starting off our viewers with today. And you said that HPV is the most common STI in the world today. But I was wondering how prevalent is HPV in Canada?

Deepa Upadhyaya  2:51  

So thanks for that question Liv. So basically, approximately 75% of sexually active Canadians will have one HPV infection in their lifetime. Mostly people between 15 and 24 years have the highest rates of HPV.

Liv Taylor  3:07  

Wow, that's extremely common in Canada, 75%. And now that we've kind of discussed what HPV is, how you can contract it and how prevalent it is in Canada. Specifically, I want to take some time to discuss how someone might be able to tell if they've been infected. So Deepa, what are the signs and symptoms of the HPV infection? 

Deepa Upadhyaya  3:27  

Yeah, so the signs and symptoms depend on what type you are infected with. So some of the HPV most of them have no visible signs or symptoms. So you don't know if you have it or not, but you can pass it on in the ways that we discussed earlier, one type or some types of HPV will infect people with genital warts. And so they're basically sort of small growths that can appear on sex organs, either inside or on the outside weeks, months or even years after you've been infected with somebody, uh with sexual contact that has HPV, they sometimes often look like little small or red or white cauliflowers, that's a common appearance of the genital warts, they can feel flat or be raised and they can, they may be prolific, so there might be a lot of them are few of them. For women or female at birth, general towards can be appearing on the vulva, urethra, cervix, vagina, anus, or thighs. For men, these words can appear on the penis, scrotum, anus or thighs. Genital warts are not a sign that you have cancer, and they are not precancerous. That's something important to take note of. And they're usually painless. So they don't really have a pain to them, but they can sometimes cause itching and burning. And when they're visible, they can cause embarrassment and effect relationships because about the stigma around sexually transmitted infections. So the HPV that have cancer related to them can cause different types of cancer. So that's cervical cancer, anal cancer, penile cancer, or vulvar, vulvar and vaginal cancers. So there's different, different strains cause different effects.

Liv Taylor  5:11  

Thank you. Yeah, that's a lot of important information about the signs and symptoms specifically of HPV, but like you said, there are cases where individuals may be asymptomatic. So if someone is worried that they may have contracted HPV, what should they do?

Deepa Upadhyaya  5:27  

Yeah, the best thing is to see their, their practitioner so you may be seeing a general practitioner or nurse practitioner, and you may have signs of genital warts and you may know somebody has been positive for HPV. So the best thing is to see their health care provider to talk about signs and symptoms and testing.

Liv Taylor  5:46  

Okay, great. So now that we've talked about what the signs and symptoms of HPV are and what individuals should do if they suspect they've contracted HPV, I want to talk a little bit more about what screening for HPV actually looks like. So how do you screen for HPV and what kind of tests are available? 

Deepa Upadhyaya  6:04  

So people probably have have been familiar with the Papanicolaou or Pap smear, which has been around for some time, and that's actually looking at the HPV the strains that cause cervical cancer. So that's what it's looking for. It's not actually testing for HPV, but it's looking for the cervical cells, the cancer cells that may occur after infection with HPV. So typically, for Papanicolaou testing, it's recommended to start at age 25, or three years after becoming sexually active, which includes skin to skin contact in the genital area, whichever is later. So if you're 17, and you're already sexually active, you don't need to start a Papanicolaou test until age 25. If you're not sexually active until 25, then you don't need to have a Pap test until age 28. You can stop doing the Pap tests after age 70. If the last three tests you've had in the last 10 years were normal, and you haven't had any abnormal skin cell changes in your cervix, and you've had, and you've had HPV tests that's negative. Now what's interesting is now the screening of HPV. We do have a piloting program in Alberta, which is screened is piloting for a home HPV test. So previously, about 5000 kits had been handed out to females assigned at birth and to be screened in various populations. BC is a little bit ahead of us on this front and they're they've are transitioning from the Papanicolaou test, or cytology screening to HPV screening based on the evidence. So, randomized control trials have shown us that HPV green screening is more effective at detecting cervical cancer and better than cytology screening that we've used for so many years. It also has a higher sensitivity. So it's better at detecting the positive cases, and also has a higher negative predictive value, which gives you greater confidence that the true negatives that you're getting from the HPV screening are actually negative. So some of the pilots that they've done in BC have showed that people with cervixes including women, transgender, two spirit, and gender diverse individuals are eager to collect their own samples. So that's, that's positive news that we know that people sometimes that have barriers to go into places may be easier for people to collect their own samples, they can be taken at home and mailed in. And patients can also elect to do provider collected liquid based cytology, as well. So there's options for what people are comfortable with. And it's those the screening itself is looking for the high risks types of HPV associated with cervical cancer. So it will identify the people as well that are at risk for cervical pre cancer, and who are right and the recommended sort of follow, follow diagram or flow diagram off after that is, is what's kind of implementing in BC for providers to know kind of the different scenarios that might come through HPV screening? Yeah.

Liv Taylor  9:17  

Wow, that's actually really interesting. These advancements being made in terms of screening for HPV, and you had said that to BC was a little bit ahead of us in terms of these pilot programs. And for my understanding, they're still very much in this pilot program stage, even in Alberta. Is there a way that individuals can gain access to these pilot programs or these test kits?

Deepa Upadhyaya  9:39  

I think there probably will be over time. But right now I'm not aware of of being able to in in Alberta, specifically go through that BC is already have, has moved to a targeted approach of rolling out so they're kind of done with their pilot testing. They've seen the evidence and they're moving forward. So it's my understanding is it's going in stages. The other thing that's nice about HPV screening is that it not only does it open the opportunities for people to self screen, but negative screens, you can have a longer period of time between them. So, so that's a five year period versus the three year period that we talked about with cytology testing with pap smears.

Liv Taylor  10:22  

Wow. So this is definitely something to keep an eye out for, for Albertan residents waiting on on these types of screening kits available. So thank you so much for sharing that. We've talked today a little bit about HPV the signs and symptoms, how you can screen but I think it's also important that we talk about protection and prevention. So I was wondering, Deepa, how can you protect yourself from HPV?

Deepa Upadhyaya  10:45  

Yeah, the best thing that we have available to us is the HPV vaccine. So it's most useful if people get the HPV vaccine before becoming sexually active, but there may still be benefit from receiving the vaccine if a person is already sexually active, but the vaccine itself can protect from the HPV that people have not been exposed to yet. So there's about seven types of HPV that can cause 90% of the cases of cervical cancer. So some of them include HPV 16 ,18, 31, and 45. So vaccines are free to all kids in grade six and nine, and in Alberta, through Alberta Health Services, and they're eligible to receive the vaccine until grade 12. So if you have newcomers to the schooling system, that's a possibility as well. And protection against HPV is similar to protection against other sexually transmitted infections. So using barriers like condoms are ways to prevent against that.

Liv Taylor  11:50  

Okay, and, and you said that this vaccine was available for students in grade six and nine and up to grade 12. Through Alberta Health Services. Where exactly is the vaccine available?

Deepa Upadhyaya  12:00  

So usually vaccines in Alberta Health services are available through public health centers. So you would either call 811 or you would search for public health centers in Alberta depending on what region you are and they'll there will be a list and you can book your appointment either by phoning 811 or phoning the health center itself.

Liv Taylor  12:23  

Awesome. Well, this is all really important for our listeners to know even even for me to know I'm learning alongside our listeners today about HPV but to end our discussion on HPV today Deepa, if someone wants to learn more about HPV, where should they look for quality evidence based information? 

Deepa Upadhyaya  12:42  

If people are listening to podcasts, and they're based in Alberta, myhealth.alberta.ca is a good place to look for all information on HPV vaccinations, cervical cancer risk and risk from the HPV and also ways to vaccinate. So that's a good site myhealth.alberta.ca Yes, so people can also, our Mount Royal community can visit their, the Wellness Center here to get more information about testing for cervical cancer testing for HPV and the vaccination. There are some other websites that I would like to point people to one of it is WWW.hpvinfo.ca. Has a lot of further information about the, about human papilloma virus and also if people are looking for good information on preventing sexually transmitted infections and methods to prevent some STIs WWW.sexandu.ca that's sex andu .ca.

Liv Taylor  13:46  

Great. That's a lot of high quality resources. Thank you so much for coming prepared with those today. Special thanks to Deepa Upadhyaya for joining us today and for our discussion on human papilloma virus. The Live Well Podcast is run by the Healthy Campus Team at Mount Royal University. You can find us online at livewell.buzzsprout.com We're also available on Apple podcast, Spotify or wherever else you can get your podcasts. Thanks to artists Scott Holmes for our theme this song is called Feeling Sunny and you've been listening to the Live Well Podcast I'm your host Liv Taylor. Thank you for tuning in.