#311 Does HPV Ever Really Go Away? The Truth About Dormancy, Latency, and Clearing the Virus

The information provided in this podcast is educational and not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions.

Dr. Doni Wilson struggled for decades to solve her numerous health issues and heal her body, but with focused determination, she healed herself. And in doing so, she discovered the Dr. Doni Stress Recovery Protocol. On this show, you're going to hear from doctors, nutritionists, and experts along with Dr. Doni, who will give practical advice and wisdom to help heal your body. This is How Humans Heal.

So does HPV virus ever really go away? Is it just dormant and going to reappear again at a later time? Many women are told that HPV may be dormant, and that's exactly what I want to address in this video. I'm Dr. Doni Wilson, host of How Humans Heal and Clear HPV Now, and I'm so glad you're here to learn more about high-risk HPV virus because there is so much that's not known and there are so many misconceptions out there that the confusion is creating more risk for women and men to HPV-related cancer. So I'm here to break those myths and get the facts out there, the truth, so that you can actually make decisions to move forward and protect yourself from high-risk HPV virus. And I'm sharing this based on my clinical experience of over 26 years as a naturopathic doctor and midwife, helping women with abnormal pap smears and HPV to clear HPV to negative and keep it negative for long periods of time. We're talking more than 15 years is some of the cases that I've worked with. So I'm going to be sharing more about my clinical experience with thousands of cases, as well as the research that currently exists regarding dormancy and, and latency of the HPV virus, because I believe that once you understand better, then you're going to be able to make different decisions to support your health. Unfortunately, right now, still, the term dormancy is being used even in doctors' offices, even in practitioners' offices. Women are being told that HPV virus could be dormant. And the problem with this terminology is that it leaves women in a state of fear, right? If you're told that a virus is dormant and could come back again, then you're going to feel constantly afraid that it's going to recur and cause abnormal cells. You're going to feel constantly afraid that you could get cancer, and you're going to feel like there's nothing you can do about it. Which can cause you to feel hopeless and, and doomed and like your life is ruined and that this virus has control of your body and your life. And that's not going to help the situation because that creates a lot of stress and fear and anxiety, all of which actually perpetuate the risk of high-risk HPV virus. So I'm going to explain more everything that I'm mentioning here, but I want to make the point that I consider dormancy to be old terminology and actually not useful and even riskful terminology because it ends up leaving women and men in a state of thinking there's nothing they can do to protect themselves from HPV, and that's simply not true. The research absolutely shows time and time again that the the human body, the human immune system, and the human microbiome can clear high-risk HPV virus fully to negative, not just to dormancy, to fully resolve HPV to no detectable DNA. And case after case where women are even re-exposed to the virus, they are not testing positive again and they're not having a recurrence of abnormal cells. So when we see that the human immune system and the human body can fully clear HPV, in fact, the research shows that in 90% of cases, humans are able to clear HPV. And this is the terminology from the research is the word clear, C-L-E-A-R, meaning it's gone. If the body in 90% of cases can clear HPV, then why are we still talking about dormancy? Right? We need to be emphasizing that it's possible to clear the virus. In fact, most people clear the virus because then we're actually empowering women and men to take steps to clear the virus, which would help them prevent cancer, including cervical cancer, vaginal cancer, as well as other HPV-related cancers. So, Once I help women to understand that they can shift from being in a state of fear of dormancy and recurrence into a state of empowerment of knowing that your body can clear the virus, everything changes, everything shifts, and you wake up thinking, I can do something about this, and I'm not just having to be at the whim of a virus. So let's break this down even more. What does this mean? What is actually happening? Because I anticipate that you're going to have questions about this, because when I talk about this with women, they always ask me really good questions. And so I want you to understand what I mean by that terminology being old, and I recommend we stop using the dormancy type terminology. The way that I understand high-risk HPV virus at this time— I'm recording this in 2026— this is very different than how I understood HPV virus 20, 25 years ago, or even 30 years ago, because I wasn't taught this either. But over years of reviewing the research and years of reviewing cases and helping women to clear the virus, now I have a completely different perspective. And what I observe, and I will also share research articles that reflect the same that I've been observing clinically, is that HPV virus essentially has 3 different possible ways it can exist or not exist in the human body. One is it can be present, right? If HPV is detected, and then the newest, latest testing that's available tests for HPV virus based on its DNA. So we can actually measure the virus based on its presence of its DNA. That wasn't available decades ago or even years ago. So we have such highly sensitive tests that we can pick up on the DNA of the virus. So if the virus is detected with this highly sensitive testing, then we know it's present and we know it's detected in the cells. We can also look for changes in the cells that help us to observe the activity of HPV virus, inflammation that it causes inside the cells, and cell reactive changes that it can— that we can under a microscope, then we know HPV virus is present and active, and it's actively changing the cells. It's even going into the nucleus of our cells, and I say it's hijacking our cells and changing the cells to look like cancer cells. So that's what the HPV virus, the high-risk types, of which there's at least 14, likely more, that are associated with cancer risk, those particular types of HPV can go into our cells and modify the cells to make the cell turn into a cancer cell. Now, when we do a Pap smear or biopsy, we're oftentimes identifying HPV and maybe identifying cells that are abnormal before they turn into cancer cells, hopefully, so we can stop it from turning into cancer cells, or if it has turned into cancer cells, then we can treat the cancer. However, a lot of times practitioners are not treating the virus, and so what I'm sharing here is opening up a whole new possibility, which is that we can actually treat the virus, and I'm going to be teaching you how. So that's one possible way that HPV can exist in the human body— is detected, present, active and causing abnormal cells potentially. When you go into doctor's office and get tested for HPV, or you go for a pap smear or biopsy, and they say HPV is present or detected or positive, that's what that means. It's, it's in this current state. Now, if it remains detected and positive for more than 2 years, we call that persistent. So in the research and clinically, it's called persistent HPV, meaning that the body didn't clear it, but it persisted past a 2-year window and the body isn't clearing it and it's staying present and active. That's persistent HPV. Now, when we— when the immune system is able to clear the virus, and through whether that's just through normal mechanisms and/or if we support the body to clear HPV using natural approaches then the virus good can go into and, uh, it can go all the way to clear, right? When we— when I say clear, it means that it's not detected, it's not present, and it's not able to cause abnormal cells or cancer, right? That's what we want. We want it cleared, we want it gone, and we want it to stay gone even if you're re-exposed to it. Right, that's what that means to me, is even if you get re-exposed by the same or a different partner, we want to make sure your immune system remembers how to protect you and prevents it from ever being able to establish itself again. And to me, that's what cleared means, is your body got rid of it fully and is protecting you from it going forward, and it's not able to recur. It's completely gone. That is the second possibility with HPV virus, and I identify, I believe that there is an in-between. And it seems that some, it doesn't always happen, but for some people, when HPV is going from detected and present on its way to clear, it can pass through a time period where it might not show positive on a test, right? The DNA may not be detected depending on the sensitivity of the test, right? And depending on the type of test, and depending on many factors, including stress in your life, stress in your body, there could be a time period where HPV may be very mildly or weakly present, but not able to be detected on testing and not able to cause abnormal cells. And yet, just floating under the surface, a very hidden level of HPV virus not fully cleared, but not active. And that is where if the person is under stress, and they show this in the research, whether that's emotional stress, physical stress, an irritant, or even different kinds of toxin exposure, then the virus can reactivate. So that is this in-between. In the research, they often use the term latency. And when I've taken courses from immunologists, even very recently, these are immunologists who research HPV and research testing for HPV, these immunologists refer to latency, which is this where maybe you were exposed and it has not yet become active or your immune system is clearing it, but it's not fully cleared and it's in this in-between latency phase. The thing is, is that because it doesn't test positive on a test at that point, you're not able to know for sure, right? We don't have a test that can identify it in that in-between phase. The only way you would know if it was in that in-between latency phase is if it all of a sudden reappeared positive again in the future. So you only find out about it retrospectively. When you go back in and you were negative and then it comes back positive in 3 months or 6 months and you're thinking, or you do 2 different types of tests and one of them says negative and one of them says positive. That to me means that it's in the latency phase. It didn't fully clear. Ladies, high-risk HPV virus doesn't have to control your life. I'm Dr. Doni Wilson and I've been at the forefront of women's health for over 20 years. I've helped thousands of women to clear HPV naturally with my proven protocol. And this isn't about just managing the virus, it's about eliminating it for good. Join my workshop and take control of your health and your body with an expert guide by your side. Click the button below. And that's when I start to really emphasize my protocol that I've developed Because what I find with women that I work with, and men, is that when I can help them, their body, their immune system, their microbiome to fully clear the virus out of latency, completely gone, now they, they are having more than one negative test result. That's how I know that it's fully cleared, that it's not just in latency, is if we do it, we get a negative test result, and then 6 months later it's still negative, and another 6 6 months or a year later, it's still negative, and 5 years later, it's still negative, then we know, and we, I see this in the research too, that it's considered to be fully cleared. It's not in a latency phase because especially if the person has been exposed to stress, emotional, physical, or chemical stress, and it's still negative, that means that their body has been able to now protect them from the virus. And we're no longer in this latency in-between phase. So if you're trying to understand what's happening for your body and what to expect, I'm hoping this helps you to understand that if it's detected, your goal is to get it to all the way cleared. And if you got one negative but then it went back to positive, you wanna— then you know it had been in a latency or this kind of in-between phase, and you— we need to figure out why. Why is your body not fully clearing it? Because we know the human immune system can clear it. We know that many people, millions of people, are able to fully clear it and have it never come back again. I'm one of those people, thank goodness. I had HPV years ago and it's never been back again. So I'm an example of it can fully clear when we address your susceptibilities. And that's why I and this is what I've created in my protocol, is to say, yes, we can take substances that support the immune system. We can make diet changes. We can get more sleep. We can avoid smoking. We can, we can do these things that help the body clear HPV from positive to latency. Right. We can take mushroom extracts. We can take vitamin C and all of those things that have been researched to help get it out of detected and active. But sometimes doing those things isn't enough and it keeps coming back again. And I see case after case of women who are like, well, it was negative, but now it's back again and it's negative and now it's back again. And why is this? And I see women who are dealing with this for over a decade, sometimes over two decades, even women who've had many biopsies, procedures, even hysterectomies. And it's still the virus, even cancer. And the virus is still present. So their body isn't— hasn't been able to clear it. It's still stuck there in between positive and latency, and we have to figure out how to get them fully cleared. And I just don't give up easily, so I say it's got to be possible, we just have to figure it out. And so we get to be detectives and we take a closer look and we go, what's really going on here? And the susceptibilities is what, what I find is making it so that these women are not fully clearing the virus to negative. I look at things like everything from diet— are there foods that are causing inflammation that are making you more susceptible to nutrient deficiencies? That if you have those nutrient deficiencies, it's going to be harder for your immune system to clear the virus and have a proper immune response. To hormone imbalances, hormone deficiencies, or elevated cortisol, for example, from stress exposure. And, you know, having not recovered from stress exposure or trauma or abuse, that also makes us susceptible. So we need to take all these factors into account. In fact, when I think about it, it's really a vicious cycle, right? Until we break the vicious cycle. And so I encourage you to think about HPV as not just the location where the HPV exists. Many times when we're thinking about and focused on HPV, we're thinking of just the vagina or the cervix or wherever you're dealing with HPV, and we don't realize that it's related to our whole body, and not even just the physical level, but also the emotional level and spiritual level, because we're whole beings and HPV is showing up for a reason. There's a reason why it hasn't been cleared. The immune system can clear it, So if it hasn't, there's a reason. And to me, it's a, it's a vicious cycle is the reason. It's not just one thing. It's usually multiple things that are working in a complex synergy that's working against your body's ability to protect you. And that vicious cycle starts with stress exposure, stress from just life stress. It doesn't even have to be severe stress, but it could be severe stress. It could be loss of a loved one, loss of a relationship. Loss of a job. It could be stress from your job or stress from a, from a relationship. It could be stress from your childhood. It's been shown that stress and abuse from childhood can increase risk of cervical cancer. So we know not just sexual abuse, but also physical abuse and emotional abuse are associated with HPV and, and HPV-related cancer risk. So we need to be looking at the stress that you've been exposed to and the impact of that stress. Stress has an impact. It— first of all, we know stress lowers immune function. Second of all, we know stress disrupts our stress hormone levels. So if cortisol, which is our main stress hormone, is too high or too low, that's going to make us susceptible to HPV. And if, if you didn't know that your cortisol is too high or too low, you're never going to know you need to do something about it. And it's not tested on standard labs. So we need to do specialty labs to see, is your cortisol too high or low? And then we can use definitely lifestyle factors, but also nutrients and herbs to help get your cortisol back to optimal. And in so doing, get your immune system back to optimal. But stress exposure also disrupts our gut health, causing leaky gut, causing microbiome imbalances. And we know from research that imbalance of the gut microbiome and leaky gut and inflammation from the gut also makes us more susceptible to HPV, including HPV in the vagina and the cervix. So this inflammation from the gut spreads around your body and makes you more susceptible to all different types of infections, including HPV. Also, hormonal imbalances, other hormonal imbalances like insulin being too high or estrogen being too high or too low, and, and so on. So we need to look at hormone imbalances, blood sugar imbalances. We need to look at what happens with pregnancy. Menopause, because that's when estrogen and progesterone change from high to low. And when those hormones change, it affects the vagina because there's more receptors of estrogen in the vagina than anywhere else in the body. So if estrogen changes, it's gonna affect the vagina. It's gonna change the lactobacillus, which is the healthy bacteria in the vagina. And if the healthy bacteria in the vagina are not optimal, then infections can happen, including HPV. So we need to look at the vaginal microbiome. We can do testing for that as well. We can test for cortisol, we can test for leaky gut, we can test the gut microbiome, we can test the vaginal microbiome, we can test for nutrient deficiencies. And by doing so, we can understand what is the vicious cycle that's hidden below the surface. It's not on your standard blood work that you may not realize is happening other than probably you have other symptoms going on. You might also have fatigue, anxiety, headaches, weight gain or weight loss, skin issues, skin rashes, digestive issues, other infections like bladder infections, sinus infections, needing antibiotics. All of these things perpetuate the vicious cycle, perpetuate the vicious cycle of stress, inflammation, microbiome imbalance, and nutrient deficiency that makes us susceptible to HPV. So when we finally solve and break that vicious cycle, right, which can be done, these things can be fixed. We can, we can guide you. I can guide you. I write about it in my books, such as the Master Your Stress Reset Your Health book. And I guide women online through online programs, whether it's online recorded videos from me or online group live programs from me or online one-on-one sessions with me. I can guide you to break the vicious cycle. I can help you to identify what's making you susceptible to HPV so that your body can fully clear it out of, out of being positive and detectable, out of latency even. Even if we can't see it, even we know it might still be there because it keeps coming and going or it keeps causing abnormal cells on and off. And your doctor is likely to just talk about another procedure or surgery because that's what they are trained to offer is a surgery or procedure to remove abnormal cells. But they're not trained to address the virus because it's not well established that it's possible to, to eliminate the virus and clear the virus using natural approaches. But I can tell you that it's possible because I've been doing it for over 26 years. The research is present and exists and the clinical experience exists. And if you want to know more, you can go to my website and listen to case after case, audio, video, written stories of women who have done exactly as I've described to actually finally realize, wow, I don't just have to settle for the idea of dormancy. Why would we settle for dormancy when women are fully clearing HPV to negative all the time and completely protecting themselves from HPV-related cancer and being able to gain their freedom from HPV and move on with their lives. So why would anyone settle for dormancy and fear of HPV once you know that's possible? So that's why I'm here, to share this information with you and hopefully inspire you to know that this is possible and to know that most other practitioners don't really know how to do this yet, because even naturopathic doctors, even functional medicine practitioners, unless they've trained with me— because I do have a certification program where I teach the full protocol to clear HPV— unless they've completed my certification program, they may not be aware that this is even possible to fully shift you from persistent HPV or latent HPV to fully cleared HPV using effective natural approaches, from diet, from stress recovery, to breaking this vicious cycle that's making you susceptible to HPV. So if you're looking for more help, from wherever you're listening in from, I welcome you to reach out to me. I'll put links down below to where you can learn more for free and where you can get started with videos from me, even from a lower cost, just to get started. And if you need more help, where you can contact my office so that I can guide you one-on-one so that we can solve this, so you don't have to live the rest of your life dealing with HPV, that you can actually clear it to negative and get it out of latency. And by— I would argue by forgetting about the term dormancy, because that, to me, dormancy is not a good option. Dormancy is not what we want. We want to clear HPV fully, and once we focus on that, we can, we can help you achieve it. Thanks so much for listening in, and if you are new, and then, then I welcome you to subscribe wherever you're listening so you don't miss the next episode of How Humans Heal, where you're going to learn from me and guests more and more about how to help your body heal and protect yourself from HPV, as well as many other health issues, using a natural holistic approach. So thank you so much for joining me, and I look forward to connecting with you very soon.

Thanks for listening to How Humans Heal. If you liked this episode, leave a rating and a review. And for more resources For more resources, visit DrDoniWilson.com.