Due to the increasing awareness of human papillomavirus and the introduction of the Gardisil vaccination, there are still huge strides that need to be taken in order to prevent our generation from this cancer causing virus. Although most strains of HPV are harmless and go away on their own, greater education is needed to teach young people about prevention. Most people are aware of STDs, but may not consider HPV to be included in the group because it is such a new diagnosis. Young women are encouraged to get an annual pap smear every year, which can determine if there is abnormal cell growth due to HPV. What about the men? HPV is not tested in the typical STD panel so many of them are carrying it around not knowing they have it. Men and women can easily pass it on to each other and depending on the strain it can lead to genital warts or even cervical cancer.
Let's say a couple does everything right before they are sexually active. They get the HIV and STD tests done. They use condoms and/or birth control. What about HPV? It can be transmitted even with the use of condoms. It can take awhile to show up-- even several years-- and all that time you have been carrying it. Once you have been exposed, the vaccinations are not as effective. They can prevent reoccurrences, but sometimes it's too late.
How can we campaign to get the HPV test on the STD panel?
Uh, the reason men aren't tested for HPV is...they CAN'T be! A test doesn't exist for them! The only HPV test available is for women over 30! (I asked my gynecologist.)
~Violinstef
Umm the scary thing about HPV is that it can cause oral cancer in males. Pretty gross. Something definitely needs to be done to raise awareness and combat HPV.
check it out at http://www.hpvselftest.com While there is no FDA approved test for men, the test that is done for women can also work for men because there is no "gender" to DNA testing. This is what is used in clinical tests to learn patterns of hpv. You can obtain one.
I participated in the University of Washington study back in 03-04 where they tested men to see if they had HPV and if so, what strains. I had 3 visits: December 03, April 04, and June 04. If I remember correctly they roughed up my skin in 3 places with a sandpaper like material: on the balls, shaft, and tip of the penis (the last one being the most uncomfortable naturally). They guy swabbed me with q-tip like sample collecter after each "sanding." I forget if he applied some kind of liquid before or after the sanding. I got my results during the following meeting. I did this whole study for my poor student fund (they paid like 50 bucks a visit I believe) and because my gf was freaked out because of an abnormal pap which later turned out to be nothing.
I had type 39 during my first 2 visits and then on the last visit 16 and 45 appeared (45 only on the balls) while 39 was gone. Now, 39 could have disappeared for a number of reasons. I probably had HPV for about a year and half (from my previous gf) before they started testing me, so the type 39 could have gone "dormant" like most believe hpv eventually does. I could have picked it up from my girlfriend at the time and it could have gone dormant within the year that I had dated her (started in December of 2002 and had not been with anyone else since the previous gf who had it). Or it could have been inconsistent testing. The test probably isn't error proof because they're basically trying to collect individual skin cells that are hpv infected.
I plan on seeing about the web site mentioned above to test myself, but I am skeptical because of the quality of the web site. But what they say there is credible: there is a test but its not FDA approved and most in the medical community don't see a need to test men (and thus seek FDA approval/develop a more reliable test).