In this episode of How Humans Heal, I want to talk about something that causes a lot of anxiety for many women — testing positive for high-risk HPV right when you’re trying to get pregnant, or finding out you have HPV after you’re already pregnant. If that’s your situation, I get it, and I’m glad you found this video. 

I’m Dr. Doni Wilson, naturopathic doctor, midwife, and women’s health expert. I’ve been in practice for over 25 years and have helped thousands of women clear HPV to negative — including during pregnancy. I want to share what you need to know so you understand your options and what you can do to protect yourself, your baby, and your future family.

Does HPV Affect My Ability to Get Pregnant?

Not necessarily. High-risk HPV does not affect your ovaries or your ability to conceive. That’s actually why some women discover they have HPV only after they’re already pregnant — it doesn’t interfere with conception.

However, there is one indirect way this virus can complicate things. If the virus causes abnormal cells on your cervix that progress to more severe changes — referred to as CIN-1, CIN-2, or CIN-3 — your doctor may recommend a LEEP procedure or conization to remove those cells. 

When women undergo repeat LEEP procedures or conization, there can be damage to the cervix, which increases the risk of miscarriage or difficulty maintaining a pregnancy. That said, your gynecologist has options to help support a pregnancy even after these procedures, so the impact really depends on the severity of the abnormal cells and what treatment is needed.

My strong recommendation: if you’ve just tested positive for high-risk HPV, especially with low-grade or first-time abnormal cells, contact my office and ask about my HPV Protocol. 

With my HPV Protocol, I’ve helped women clear HPV to negative and support them to heal their cervix — sometimes preventing the need for a procedure altogether. 

For CIN-2 or CIN-3, there is an alternative to LEEP called escharotic treatments, which is a natural approach using enzymes, nutrients, and herbs to remove abnormal cells without damaging the cervix. I was trained in how to perform escharotics over 25 years ago and have performed thousands of these treatments successfully. If you’d like a referral or want to know whether you’re a candidate for escharotics, even from a long distance, please reach out to my office.

If the cells are more advanced — closer to carcinoma — you’ll need to work with both a gynecologist and an oncologist, but even then, many women go on to have healthy pregnancies after treating high-grade abnormal cells. Only in cases where a hysterectomy is required would HPV truly affect your ability to conceive.

Is It Safe to Try to Get Pregnant While Testing Positive for HPV?

If you’re testing positive for HPV but don’t yet have abnormal cells, your gynecologist is not going to advise you to avoid pregnancy. Many women go through pregnancy while testing positive for high-risk HPV. 

The concern is that pregnancy spans at least nine months, plus postpartum recovery, during which there’s less opportunity to actively treat the virus — and there’s always the concern that the HPV virus could cause cells to progress during that time.

What I want you to know is that there are safe and effective ways to support your immune system during pregnancy. You won’t typically hear this from a standard gynecology office, but as a naturopathic doctor and midwife, I’m comfortable guiding women to use evidence-based natural approaches during pregnancy. That is part of my training and clinical experience. 

We can use mind-body techniques, dietary changes, specific nutrients, and herbs that are safe during pregnancy — including probiotics — to support your immune system and help your body clear the virus. I’ve seen many women not only prevent progression of abnormal cells during pregnancy but come out of the pregnancy with a healthy baby and a negative HPV test, because they followed my (pregnancy-modified) protocol throughout pregnancy.

If you’re already pregnant and testing positive, please reach out to my office as soon as possible. I’ll guide you to get the right lab work we need and support you step by step — addressing HPV while supporting both your health and your baby’s health at the same time.

Can HPV Affect the Baby?

In most cases, the virus does not affect the baby. There are very rare scenarios where it can be passed to the baby during a vaginal birth, but the baby’s immune system is typically able to clear the virus. 

It is not considered a contraindication to have a vaginal birth when you’re testing positive for HPV — your doctor will not recommend avoiding vaginal birth for this reason. That said, I would always prefer to support you in clearing HPV so your baby isn’t exposed to it at all, and there are things we can do to support your baby’s immune system even after birth.

The human immune system is well-equipped to protect us from viruses like HPV, as long as we give it the support it needs. When there are nutrient deficiencies, microbiome imbalances, gut health issues, vaginal health concerns, or hormone imbalances, we become more susceptible — and that’s what allows the virus to persist and potentially cause abnormal cells. By addressing those underlying factors, we can help your body clear HPV and prevent it from causing further problems.

A Final Note on Fertility

Something I find remarkable is that women who follow my HPV Protocol often end up improving their fertility in the process. As we work through the underlying reasons why you’re susceptible to HPV — nutrient levels, blood sugar, hormones, microbiome, vaginal health — we’re also addressing many of the same factors that can interfere with conception. I’ve had women over 40 clear HPV, heal their cervix, and get pregnant naturally when they didn’t think they could, simply because we addressed the root causes.

I hope this has been reassuring. There is so much you can do — whether you’re planning to conceive, already pregnant, or dealing with abnormal cells. Please reach out to my office, wherever you are in the world. I look forward to helping you navigate HPV and pregnancy successfully. 

If HPV is present and not clearing, that is a message from your body — your immune system is struggling, and something beneath the surface hasn’t been identified or addressed. But every single one of these susceptibilities can be tested for, addressed, and resolved. You are not powerless in this — quite the opposite. By asking the right questions and doing the right tests, you can take real, meaningful control of your health and give your immune system exactly what it needs to protect you.

The standard medical system doesn’t run the right tests, and most practitioners aren’t trained to interpret and act on the results. But that doesn’t mean your options are limited — it means you need the right guide. I’ve helped patients around the world clear HPV and go on to feel better than they had in years, because when you rebalance your whole system, everything improves — your energy, your sleep, your mood, your resilience.

Learning More About HPV

If you’d like to learn more, join me over at doctordoni.com. You can download my HPV Recovery Guide, which is a free PDF. You’ll see all the success cases of women who’ve been through this process and found freedom from high-risk HPV so that you can have hope that it’s possible for you too. I see women achieving it every day.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office. My team would be happy to connect with you and help you know what your next best step is to free yourself from HPV. My team can also help coordinate shipping worldwide. You don’t have to figure it out on your own. Click here to set up a call with my team.

If you’d like to get a better sense of my approach, I welcome you to join my next free How to Get Rid of HPV online workshop where I help you to create a plan to get HPV out of your life for good. From there, you might choose to join the Heal HPV Kickstart Program, for the initial steps of my protocol, including diet changes and supplements, over the next 30 days.

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Or you can begin with the comprehensive Say Goodbye to HPV Program, which is 3 months and includes everything you need to implement my full protocol and address all the susceptibilities with live, group support, and access to testing and vaginal suppositories.

Thank you so much for joining me for this video. I’d love to hear from you – please like, comment, share, and subscribe, if you haven’t already. I look forward to having you join me for the next episode of How Humans Heal.

Disclaimer: This specific article and all other Content, Products, and Services of this Website are NOT intended as, and must not be understood or construed as, medical care or advice, naturopathic medical care or advice, the practice of medicine, or the practice of counseling care, nor can it be understood or construed as providing any form of medical diagnosis, treatment,  natural HPV cure, or prevention of any disease.