Bethers -Wouldn't it be just as likely that your immune system cleared it for several years, and given how common it is, you just got reinfected? The person I turn to with this question is Maura Gillison, and her answer is that the immune system is certainly capable of clearing it. Whether or not it has periods of latency, no one knows, and I do not think we will have an answer for that.

Latent and dormant are not the same thing, and people/doctors that use those terms interchangeably I believe are mistaken. Latent would mean that you get a disease, and that takes some period of time, weeks, years, before it becomes active and manifests itself in a manner that can be recognized. A latent disease could be cured and not exist in your body afterwards, whether by your immune system or outside intervention.

Dormant insinuates that it stays with you like herpes forever, and has periods when it is active and periods when it is not, but it is something that you have for life. We know Herpes simplex 1 and 2, are like this because when non active we can still go and find it living on the ganglion of your nerves. We do not know the same thing about HPV, and that is why many science people believe that because of the fact, that it is so common that -cure, reinfection, cure, reinfection etc. - is the most likely scenario.

It will be many years before we have answers for this and many other questions about HPV. Not a lot of research is being done on it specifically, so it will unveil itself to us over years not some shorter period of time. OCF gets phone calls everyday from so many misinformed people that I am truly sick of explaining this to wives that think their husbands have had extra marital affairs, couples who have a woman test positive and wonder if they should stop having sex and so much more. The Oral dna test being sold to dentists, and which has limited value, is being used by dentists as much for profit motive in my mind as any other reason, and they are creating a lot of anxious patients out there, who really have noting to worry about. Of course they don't know much about HPV so what they tell patients is most of the time when I hear it wrong.