Hello everybody,

I am a very scared newbie 40 year old male. I have no health insurance due to a pre existing back condition. 14 years ago I got diagnosed with genital HPV. I went to a skin doctor and urologist who gave me medications to cure the problem. Both said everbody that has sex has HPV so its no big deal. I never thought about again till I had another outbreak 12 years later.

It happened after my partner died. He had squamous cell carcinoma of the neck and throat which I had no clue could involve HPV. We lived in a very rural part of Alabama. None of his doctors mentioned HPV as a cause or an alarm.

He was on a feeding tube for 7 years and I took care of him 24-7

I admit that I was very sexually active with about 50 partners and he was also before we met. He was 30 years older then me. I had always worried about Aids, herpes, etc... never thinking about HPV as I had never heard of it.

Now I am worried that I have oral HPV. I have an appointment with a dentist for an oral cancer screening next week. Several little suspicious small wart like nodules are in various places on my tongue and under it. None hurt and I am now terrified that I have squamous cell like he did. Some are so tiny and flat.

I guess that I should ask my dentist for an ENT referral to get my throat checked out. Is it expensive? With no health insurance I feel so defeated, embarrassed, and just degraded.

YOu mention HPV where I live most doctors hang up the phone or do not reply to your email.

Mentally this disease is just devastating. We have no support groups here. I am not out of the closet either. My life just feels like it is falling a part.

IF my partners squamous cell carcinoma was caused by HPV I guess my chances are very good that I have the same strain since we were together so many years.

Thanks for listening as this is one of the only places I do not feel nasty or diseased.

M