Short answer
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common STI. Most sexually active people encounter it, the immune system usually clears it, but persistent high-risk types can cause several cancers while low-risk types cause genital warts.
Vaccination prevents most of this disease burden; screening catches what vaccination and immunity miss.
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See Tests & Prices →Transmission in everyday terms
HPV spreads through vaginal, anal, and oral sex plus skin-to-skin genital contact. Including contact without penetration.
Condoms reduce but cannot fully prevent transmission since uncovered skin can carry the virus.
Most transmission comes from partners with no symptoms and no knowledge of carriage.
How contact transmission works generally is covered in Can You Get an STI While Using a Condom?.
Symptoms, and their meaningful absence
Most infections cause no symptoms.
Low-risk types can cause genital warts. Growths varying in appearance that may itch.
High-risk types cause no symptoms until abnormal screening results or, rarely, cancer developing years later.
The absence of symptoms never reassures with HPV; participation in screening does.
Testing and screening by anatomy
Cervical screening combines Pap tests and HPV testing on age-based schedules, with HPV testing added from age 30.
Abnormal results lead to colposcopy, not panic: most abnormalities resolve or are treatable precancerous changes.
Warts are diagnosed visually.
Anal screening applies to high-risk groups per guidance.
There is no approved HPV test for men. Male management runs through vaccination, visual diagnosis, and risk-group anal screening.
The two tests’ roles are compared in HPV Testing and Cervical Screening Differences.
Vaccination that prevents most of it
Gardasil 9 covers the types behind most HPV cancers and warts, with safety monitoring across hundreds of millions of doses.
It prevents future infections but does not treat existing ones. Which is why pre-exposure timing (routine at 11–12, catch-up through 26, discussed 27–45) matters more than any other factor.
Schedules and access are detailed in What STI Vaccines Exist in the United States?.
Management without an antiviral cure
Warts are treated by clinician-applied or prescribed methods matched to size and location; precancerous cervical changes have effective outpatient treatments.
There is no antiviral cure for the virus itself. Management targets its effects while immunity usually clears the infection over time.
Partner conversations need latency and ubiquity facts rather than blame; see Talking About HPV with a Partner.
When to seek care
Follow screening schedules, seek care for genital growths or abnormal bleeding, and ask your clinician about catch-up vaccination if you missed it.