HPV symptoms to look for after Love Island's Shaughna Phillips shares diagnosis

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Love Island's Shaughna Phillips has revealed she has tested positive for HPV.The reality star, 28, opened up about the results of her smear test as she encouraged fans to book screening appointments.In an update on Twitter she said: “Had my results back yesterday, I tested positive for HPV and have had borderline changes to some cells that require further examination.“I’m scared but that’s okay.

Thank god for screening. Ladies, book your smears.”The NHS Cervical Screening Programme saves an estimated 5,000 lives a year, but despite this many people avoid attending their screening appointments when invited.

Here’s everything you need to know about what HPV and cervical cancer is, the symptoms to look out for and why smear tests are so important.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the name for a common group of viruses and is the most common form of sexually transmitted infection, according to the NHS.HPV is very common, both men and women can get it and most of the time it doesn’t cause any problems or require any treatment.However, sometimes HPV can cause genital warts or cancer.Although both sexes can get HPV, conversations around testing usually centre on women because of the risk of cervical cancer.HPV causes 99.7% of cervical cancers, the most common type of cancer in women under 35.People with HPV are also at higher risk of developing other types of cancers, including anal cancer, cancer of the penis, vulval cancer, vaginal cancer and some types of neck and head cancer.