Washington (SmartAboutHealth) - According to a new study, young adults who are involved in a sexual relationship have a 50/50 chance that they will become infected with human papilomavirus, HPV.

The study was carried out by researchers led by Prof. Eduardo Franco, Director of McGill University’s Cancer Epidemiology Unit.

They worked along with others from the Univerity of Montreal to study how frequently HPV and other sexually transmitted diseases infected young adults.

What they found was pretty astonishing to be quite honest, as 56% of young adults in a new sexual relationship were infected with HPV.

On top of that, 44% of these young adults had a type of HPV that was likely to lead to cancer later in life.

The study will certainly raise more than a few eyebrows as it was seen that when one partner had HPV, the other partner was highly-likely to either have it or develop it.

The same type of HPV was seen in 42% of couples in total.

If one partner was infected with HPV, the other partner was 50 times more likely to develop an infection.

The study has been published in the January 2010 issue of Epidemiology and Sexually Transmitted Diseases.