Human papillomavirus prevalence in women who have and have not undergone hysterectomies

We compared human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence in an age-stratified random sample of women who have undergone a hysterectomy (WH) (n = 573) with the HPV prevalence in age-matched women with intact cervices (women who have not undergone a hysterectomy [WNH]) (n = 581) participating in a study at Kaiser Permanente in Portland, Oregon. Testing cervicovaginal lavage fluids for > 40 HPV genotypes using an MY09/11 L1 consensus primer polymerase chain reaction method, we found no statistical differences in the prevalence of HPV (16% for WNH vs. 13.9% for WH) or carcinogenic HPV (6.5% for WNH vs. 4.5% for WH) between the 2 groups of women. Although WH have a similar prevalence of carcinogenic HPV infection, compared with WNH without a cervix, they have minimal risk of HPV-induced cancer and are unlikely to benefit from HPV testing.