Can someone say "awkward"?????

So the other night, "J" and I are out to dinner for a friend's birthday. Along for the ride are three of her other friends, you know from a different circle. 2 of them girls, 1 boy. Both girls in serious relationships (1 married, 1 engaged). All of them considerably older than J and I (I would say at least 5 years). (P.S. This is all background information for you, which will become very important when I get to the punch line. When is that happening? Chill out.. I'm getting there)
So.. we're having this lovely dinner.. talking about all sorts of things: getting drunk, relationships, etc. At one point, J and I (who are on one end of the table) are having our own little discussion when suddenly a few words from the other conversation grab our attention. It went a little something like this.
Girl #1-"Abnormal paps... yea. That was how we could always tell which of our friends had been sleeping around."
Girl #2- "Yea, that was always a sure sign of the whores."
Boy- "You know, most of the time those are caused by HPV, the sexually transmitted disease."
At this point, I'm not even sure where the conversation went at that end of the table, but I know how it went on my end... chirp, chirp.
I refused to look up, instead solely focusing my attention on my wine, examining it as I swirled it in my glass, wishing I could take a big pull off the bottle.
All the while, I can feel the tension from J.
You see, both of us have had those "abnormal paps". And both of us of had that lovely conversation with our gynos where we learned we had HPV. So, basically both of us are "those whores". I couldn't look at J for fear of giving away our dirty little secret. (Pun totally intended)
I have several things to say about this...
First, since when has this become dinner conversation? I must admit, I was caught totally off guard. I never thought I would have to worry about such a thing coming up at a birthday dinner.
Second, how the hell does the boy at the table know such things about abnormal paps??
And lastly, there is nothing wrong with being a whore!!
I felt a little defensive and part of me wanted to shout out..."Like 90% of the sexually active population has HPV. One of you probably has it and doesn't even know it!!" But the more sane part of me just wanted to hide. Should we feel ashamed we have HPV? I've known I've had it for years now, and so I have come to terms with it, and the whore-ish-ness that gave it to me. I actually look at it like this, for all the guys I have slept with, and all the times I was a whore... I feel pretty damn lucky to just have HPV, an STD that increases your risk of cervical cancer but that's about it. I just have to be dilligent about my yearly check-ups, which I am.
I hope that HPV is not like the new "in" dinner party conversation, but if having it means I was a whore... the honest answer is "yes-sometimes I was". Should I feel bad, maybe. But instead I just kinda feel like I bet I have a lot better stories than you do.