Abstract

Introduction: Papillomavirus strains can be practically classified by their risk of causing cervical cancer into low-risk (type 6 and 11) and high-risk (HPV 16 and 18) types. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate Papillomavirus DNA in different age groups.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study, we determine the frequency of the papillomavirus in 50 premenopausal and 50 postmenopausal patients admitting Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University School of Medicine, Gynecology and Menopause outpatient clinics for follow-up, Kahramanmaras/Turkey for examination from December 2008 to December 2009. Inclusion criteria were patients had no other gynecological cancer history. After endocervical swab specimens reached to Medical Microbiology laboratory, we cut the tips of endocervical swab specimen and stored as frozen at -20 degrees centigrade in phosphate buffer in eppendorphs until studying. Real Time PCR was used for extraction of DNA and sequencing was done for genotyping.

Information about patients (Menopause/Gynecology patients, age, menopause age, marital status, education, income, marriage age, pregnancy age, number of pregnancy, number of sexual partners, history of using OCS/HRT, history of sexual transmitted disease, smoking/drinking, diet) was taken with patient information form.

Results: Six patients out of 100 (6%) were determined to be papillomavirus positive. Four of these papillomavirus DNA positive patients were at postmenopausal group and two of them were at premenopausal group. Two were type 6 (33.3%), two were type 45 (33.3%), one was type 16 (16.6%) and one was type 67 (16.6%). In this study, we couldn’t determine statistically significant difference between positive results and being in premenopausal or postmenopausal period (p>0.05).

Conclusion: In our study, we evaluated papillomavirus prevalence and type distribution in two periods of life of woman in a local population. Further studies would be beneficial in different groups and to determine nonhospital based papillomavirus prevalence in our country.

Keywords

Human papilloma virus, Menopause, Real-time PCR, Bovine papillomaviruses, Epidermodysplasia verruciformis, Oropharyngeal cancers, Cervical cancer, Hydrophobic oncoprotein, Carcinogenesis, Sexual activity, Pregnancy, Marriage, Smoking/drinking, Gynecology patient, Women