There are no symptoms, per se, to oral HPV related cancer as the cancer can go undetected until it is Staged a III or even a IV. Most times and I say that with some hesitation, patients first notice a non painful lump on one side of their neck which leads to some biopsy OR they notice a "difference" in the back of their throat or tonsils and again a biopsy follows. The typical Oral HPV patient is a white male (younger than most non HPV oral patients) with a Primary in either the base of tongue or tonsils and again, usually by the time it is discovered, it has already spread to a node or 2 on the same side of the Primary.

Re transmission....HPV is extremely contagious and may easily be transmitted to the oral cavity by French kissing, mouth to vagina or any other means that collect cells in the vagina and transmits them to one's oral cavity (you can be creative here). This all assumes an HPV presence in the other person.