Nervous about telling it to my partner
I (24f) recently found out that I have HPV (types 6 and 18), and honestly, I’m really scared about how my boyfriend is going to react.
We’ve only been officially dating for about a month, and we’re in a long-distance relationship. We got intimate about a month ago. Before him, I had only slept with one person within the previous 12 months, and that was a one time thing about 11 months ago. I’ve had 3 sexual partners in total before him.
He has only had 2 partners before me, and he’s from the US. I’m wondering if there’s a chance he was vaccinated for HPV when he was younger. I know HPV vaccination is pretty common in the US, but I have no idea if he actually got it.
What scares me the most is that he might think differently about me or stop liking me. I really, really love this guy, and I would be absolutely heartbroken if he rejected me because of this.
I decided to tell him but what if he finds me disgusting and dumps me?
I also feel guilty and embarrassed even though I know HPV is extremely common and that it can stay unnoticed for a long time. I’ve read that it can sometimes show up years after the initial infection, so I know there’s no way to know exactly when or from whom I got it. But emotionally, I’m still struggling with it.
For context, we’re both East Asian, and I feel like he might be somewhat conservative about sex/STIs, which makes me even more nervous about telling him.
Posted Aug 12, 2026, 10:49 AM UTC