When thinking about the symptoms of oral HPV infection, you should know that HPV is the virus that leads to cervical cancer and genital warts.
It is also the virus that causes infections to the back of the mouth affecting the tonsils and the base of the tongue.
How can you get the oral HPV infection symptoms?
Specialists say that the main way the infection is transmitted, is through sexual activities. It looks like more and more people who have oral sex acquire tonsillar HPV infection. Naturally there are some other sexual activities through which you can acquire the infection.
Statistically, people who have more sexual partners have higher chances of showing signs of oral HPV infection. If you have at least 20 different sexual partners, your chances of getting infected increase to 20%. Smokers also have higher chances of being affected than non-smokers, especially the heavy smokers.
What are the symptoms of oral HPV infection?
The truth is that the majority of the affected people show no symptoms. This means that they can’t possibly know that they are infected until they pass on the infection to someone else. If you have the infection, it could lead to oropharyngeal cancer. Nonetheless the majority of the infected people don’t get cancer because the kind of infection that they have isn’t linked to cancer development.
Oral HPV infection signs in case of oral cancer
Usually the first sign in this case is having problems with swallowing. Some other signs include coughing up blood, hoarseness that doesn’t seem to go away and having a lump in the cheek or in the neck. The bad news is that usually these are the signs when the disease is in a late stage.
There are some other possible symptoms of oral HPV infection that are connected to cancer. These include having a sore throat, having a red or white patch on the tonsils, numbness of the tongue and swelling or pain in jaw. Still, you should keep in mind that if you see these signs, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have cancer.
Diagnosis
If you see the warning signs of oral HPV infection for more than two weeks, it might be time for you to see a specialist. There is no test that could tell you that you have HPV infection in your throat.
In the majority of the cases the infection is found in case of patients who already see the symptoms of oral HPV infection.
