ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND There are two faces to the reality of human papilloma virus (HPV) infections in women. The overwhelming majority of patients with this most common sexually transmitted disease (STD) have no symptoms or cytologic signs of infection, and they rid themselves of the virus with no residual evidence of ever being infected. This is the silent majority of this widespread STD. A major component of physician opposition to universal HPV testing is that positive highrisk HPV tests will unnecessarily raise patients’ anxieties over a disagreeable subject, an STD that has been linked to cervical cancer. There is strong support among physicians to the strategy of ‘don’t test, don’t tell’.
