Worried about exposure 10 years ago

[lennoxvista]

Hi, I'm sorry in advance if my grammar is inaccurate, I'm a foreigner. My story is that I had only one time unprotected vaginal sex in my life which was 10 years ago. The woman who I had unprotected sex with had HIV negative result which she showed me 10 years ago. During that time I was so young and did not know much about other STDs so I did not care about it. I just heard the news from my friend today that the woman who I had unprotected sex with died from cervical cancer two years ago. And  when I researched about cancer, it said that some STDs might increase the risk of cervical cancer. Now I'm feeling scared because do you think I'm at risk of STDs such as Syphilis ? Is it possible that I could get infected with Syphilis and no signs of any symptoms at all for 10 years? For the past 10 years, I never had any weird symptoms and have a very healthy life. But now I'm feeling scared. Please give me some advice.

[auntiejessi]

Yes, actually most cervical cancers are caused by HPV, which is a sexually transmitted disease. There are other causes of cervical cancer, so I can't say that was what caused it in your partner, but that's probably what it meant when you were reading about it.

The good news is that even if your partner did have HPV, you were with her 10 years ago, and HPV usually clears from the body within 2 years. Even if you got it from her - if she had it at the time when you were with her - then you don't any longer.

It's possible that you got syphilis, but I'd be very surprised if you had it for 10 years with no symptoms. If it's that concerning for you, you can always ask your doctor for a test. I wouldn't worry about it, though.

[Life360_Dave]

About 50% of those infected show no symptoms even for 10 years. Just for peice of mind maybe best to test just so you can put this behind you. Nothing to be overly concened about.