Human papillomavirus infection in postmenopausal women with and without hormone therapy

To determine whether postmenopausal hormone therapy is associated with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.

The detection rate of HPV DNA was studied in cellular residue from liquid-based collection tubes taken from 180 postmenopausal hormone users attending a menopausal clinic and 126 postmenopausal nonusers. The samples were analyzed with a hybrid capture technique using a mix of high- to intermediate-risk viral RNA probes. In all patients, information on potential confounding factors for HPV infection, including sociodemographic, reproductive, and gynecologic characteristics, was obtained.

The prevalence of HPV DNA in this cohort of postmenopausal women was 1% (three of 306); only two of the 180 current users and one of the 124 nonusers tested positive. Only one of the three women with HPV-positive tests had lesional tissue (i.e., vulvar condylomata acuminata). The remaining two HPV-positive women had negative cytology, colposcopy, and biopsy. In all three cases, viral burden was low, about 10 pg per cellular sample. The very low HPV prevalence precluded the analysis of correlation with age, ethnicity, education, sexual history, smoking, history of abnormal Papanicolaou smear, therapy for HPV-related lesions, and contraceptive use.

Identification of high-risk HPV types in post-menopausal women is rare, as detected by hybrid capture in cellular residue from the liquid-based cytology-collection system. Postmenopausal hormone therapy does not appear to promote viral replication or the risk of carrying high-risk HPV DNA or related lesional tissue in the lower genital tract.