The body in PEOPLE WHO HAVE AN IMMUNE SYSTEM THAT RECOGNIZES HPV 16 AS A THREAT develop antibodies, not patients who do not. (We didn't and so we got the disease.) Many patients come out of treatment theoretically with HPV still in their system, but without a good way to test for it, no really good study has been done of this. Ironically some develop antibodies and some do not. Treatment doesn't change your immune system. I don't know of but one study that looked for circulating HPV antibodies after treatment. That was a really small group and strong opinions about this could not be drawn from it.

I don't think that anyone who knew about this study going on, expected anything to be different than what they found. Spouses are mathematically just like the general population to begin with (some with protective immune systems and some without protective immune systems to HPV in ratios that should be identical to a general population), so their antibodies re this would match those in the general population, not be unique because they were married to someone that had HPV 16 disease. (Or in the general population date someone with HPV16). The patient is the person that is different, not the spouse. The spouses odds are the same as anyone in the dating world for getting and clearing HPV. This study was done to quell the dysfunction in sexual and intimate relationships between oral cancer HPV+ patents and their spouses, which is a common phenomenon. Personally I don't think it will change things much, facts as they relate to making intimate decisions only speak to one of the reasons for dysfunction.

By the by, who said that men take longer than 2 years to clear an HPV infection? And where is the data on multiple exposures? I don't even know how you would study that�. Reference please.