If she had them "several years" ago, her immune system has very probably got rid of that strain of the virus and the strains linked to genital warts are not the same as the ones linked to cervical cancer.

You can - and nearly everyone does - have more than one strain at some point in your life.

It's possible to pay for Gardasil, the vaccine that protects against the genital wart pair as well as the two main cervical cancer pair. Given that you've been sexual with other people, it's extremely likely you've got / had at least one strain and if you've already got / had them, it's a waste of money as you wouldn't get any benefit. (And the makers very definitely did the clinical trials in the hope that you would: when it arrived, it and the 'cervical cancer pair only' equivalent from another firm were the most expensive vaccines ever.)

I've never heard of Gardasil. I'll look into it. I'm going into the GUM clinic tomorrow and I'll see what they say x

That's good to hear. Maybe Im just being super sensitive? I just wish she'd told me before we slept together.

If she had them "several years" ago, her immune system has very probably got rid of that strain of the virus and the strains linked to genital warts are not the same as the ones linked to cervical cancer.

You can - and nearly everyone does - have more than one strain at some point in your life.

It's possible to pay for Gardasil, the vaccine that protects against the genital wart pair as well as the two main cervical cancer pair. Given that you've been sexual with other people, it's extremely likely you've got / had at least one strain and if you've already got / had them, it's a waste of money as you wouldn't get any benefit. (And the makers very definitely did the clinical trials in the hope that you would: when it arrived, it and the 'cervical cancer pair only' equivalent from another firm were the most expensive vaccines ever.)

I think genital warts (herpes) never goes away. The virus stays in your system and you can have an outbreak at any time in the future. That’s why they say herpes is incurable. Some people are lucky and don’t have an outbreak but others have several.

My partner had it and i never caught it once, i think it depends if you have had the vaccine for it or not

Based on their pricing of other stuff, Boots are unlikely to be the cheapest for this.

It's also pointless for anyone who already has the strains of HPV it helps protect against - and they won't test that before selling it to you. If you have had unprotected intercourse with almost anyone who had done it with someone else, you may well already do so.

See elsewhere here for the reality behind the scare marketing of oral and anal cancer.

Is it Gardasil or Cervarix? If I was under 45 I'd definitely pay for Gardasil. Most people won't know what strains they've been exposed to, and you never know what you'll meet next, so as someone who's been through a minor cervical cancer scare, I'm all for it. HPV also causes a fair proportion of head and neck cancers.