 [ Symptoms ] a girl i have been dating told me she has hpv are my risks any greater with her than the general population  we have not had sex i guess she had some warts and they have gone away without recurrence for at least 5 or so years  she is telling me it is no big deal given the stats i wonder if my risks any greater with her than the general population  i am in the process of divorcing and i logically know this will not be a lifelong thing with the new girl [ Disease ] most helpful answer you ask a great question and i am going to try to give you a great answer if only it were that simple first i think we should acknowledge your current girlfriend for informing you about her hpv diagnosis that is a very responsible and brave thing to do she is behaving the way every adult should act in this situation as to your risk for developing hpv if you have sexual contact with your girlfriend well it is difficult to provide a definitive answer human papillomavirus hpv can exist in the skin without manifesting as warts this means you can not always tell visually whether or not a person has hpv and you can contract the virus through skin to skin contact even in the absence of warts also a condom often does not protect against this contact because the hpv infected area of a woman is vulva may contact the portion of your penis or scrotum not covered by the condom all of that said hpv also can clear up on its own one study showed around 90 percent of female study participants showed no trace of the virus about two years after their initial diagnosis this means it is possible your girlfriend is body has cleared the virus on its own on the other hand the hpv virus can go dormant for years maybe your girlfriend is case is dormant not cleared to your question about is your risk of getting hpv higher with this woman than with the general population  the answer is yes if she is currently infected and no if she has cleared the virus keep in mind if you contract hpv from this girlfriend you risk transmitting the virus to another girlfriend down the road even if you use a condom as i am sure you know certain strains of hpv cause cervical cancer you should consider whether or not you want to be even remotely responsible for spreading this potentially life threatening virus clear as mud wishing you well