'HPV does not prove cheating' - gynecologist
Published:Sunday | April 30, 2017 | 1:43 PMJason Cross
Gynaecologic onco-logist and robotic surgeon, Dr Troy Gatcliffe, has moved to discredit popular belief that the human papillomavirus (HPV) is evidence of unfaithfulness between sexual partners.
Gatcliffe was the guest speaker at the Dr Joseph
St Elmo Hall Memorial Lecture Series, held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in St Andrew yesterday. He practises at the Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health in South Florida.
The Jamaica Cancer Society organised the event, alongside Baptist Health South Florida.
"The notion that having HPV is a sign of sexual promiscuity or unfaithfulness between a husband and a wife is a big myth that we have to debunk. It continues to haunt us every day in my office. It continues to haunt every physician because people will think that like other sexually transmitted diseases, it must imply some form of unfaithfulness or promiscuity in the person that has it, and that is not true," he said.
"That's a huge message I want to put forward, that having the HPV virus or being exposed to it at some point in your life and having the antibodies in your body doesn't necessarily mean that that person was promiscuous or unfaithful to their partner. It is very common," Gatcliffe said.