Hello everyone. I've done all the research I could but could not find an answer. I recently had a mini freak out on here over some discoloring of my hard palate last week. I stil have a dentist appointment for tomorrow. But in the meantime, I now noticed my right tonsil is slightly enlarged. It looks like it is the same color as the rest of my mouth, but bigger than my left one. I had never noticed this before but really wasn't looking until I just happen to notice it. I know my girlfriend has HPV and there is a good chance I could've orally contracted it. I've heard HPV can give problems to the tonsillar area and back of tongue. Now my question: How long does it take for HPV to cause problems after getting it? I'm assuming, if I have it, I got it in June of this year. Would five months be long enough to show effects or might I just have a tonsil infection? I know this is a lot to ask and I appreciate any help. I'm still going to ask my dentist about it tomorrow regardless of responses on here. Thanks

-Justin

Justin,
I don't know how long it takes to get oral cancer from HPV, but I would be interested in knowing as well. My husband was diagnosed with base of tongue cancer in August 2007 after surgery to remove a lymph gland that was cancerous (noticed Spring 2007). He is not a smoker or drinker, but does work at the steel mill. I asked if he could be tested for HPV and oncologist said she has never done this before and what good would it do if we did know. I think it's worth checking into. I've read a lot about it online and there have been some studies done on it. Sounds like the treatment could be different if it is HPV. I would not hesistate to have it checked. You can never be too sure of anything.
Cat

I dont know that anyone has an answer as to how long after contracting HPV that it would manifest into cancer ...That goes for even cervical cancer. I worked for Planned Parenthood for 2 1/2 year and saw ALOT of HPV yet not all cancer related ...will it turn to that ..Possibly ..I don't know that anyone can be sure. I think our best bet as far as HPV is ooncerned is to do our best to protect ourselves from it and if possible get the vaccination . And they are still doing studies on everything else.

Shar

You are obsessing about all this. HPV may have been taken care of by your immune system, or you may not have contracted it at all! Even if you did, there are over 100 varieties of it and the odds that you got one of the handful that are oncogenic are small to say the least. You are begining to sound very obsessive, much like someone who posted here from another state. You didn't just move from somewhere did you?

Your question was answered in my last post to you "Duration of exposure before development of malignancy would also likely preclude your posted sexual adventure with an occurrence of related pathology in such a short time, and certainly, in the realm of malignant development, unless that sexual encounter time line was measured in many years you can leave that out of the equation."

Before you have a mental meltdown, wait till someone tells you that you actually have something. You are asking a question to which, if you have been researching this on the web, you probably understand there is no way of knowing, about a virus that you have no way of being tested for, for a disease which you have no reason to believe that you have, of a group of people who are not virus experts. Does this seem at all reasonable to you?