New study on HPV and men

First spotted on MSNBC:

"We found that there is a high proportion of men who have genital HPV infections. At enrollment, it was 50 percent," said Giuliano, whose study appears online in the journal Lancet.

Read that again. Half of men had genital HPV infections at enrollment in the study. They're not saying these men simply had it at some point in their lives and cleared it. Half of those men were testing positive for at least one type of HPV on day one. And the high rate of HPV was true across all age groups for guys. Also, "[w]hereas risk of HPV decreases with increasing age in women, men seem to have a stable risk for acquiring new HPV infections throughout their life." (Purchase the full text here.)

The distinction is important. Other studies have estimated that there's a good chance that most people - both genders included - will have HPV at some time in their lives. This new study is saying something unique about men, because this is talking about males at this very moment - not at some point within a lifespan, but right now.

Aside from the 50% prevalence on day one, the study also reflects that over 1500 new infections were contracted during the study. It's possible to have more than one strain at once. If you get a new strain, it's a new infection.

What else makes men different? Well, it appears that once guys contract HPV, they hold on to the virus for a longer time. In other words, their bodies don't clear the virus as easily as women can - assuming they clear it at all:

"What is different is men seem to have high prevalence of genital HPV infections throughout their lifespans." She said it appears that women are better able to clear an HPV infection, especially as they age, but men do not appear to have this same ability.

Remember, number of lifetime partners is the #1 risk factor for getting HPV. In light of that, everyone should have a look at this part of the study:

Clearance of oncogenic HPV infection decreased in men with a high number of lifetime female partners

and

Men who had sex with more than 50 female sexual partners were 2.4 times more likely to have a cancer-causing HPV infection than men who reported having only one or no sexual partners.

(Ahem - consider that alongside this information.)

One last thing. The men in this study all got tested for HPV. Yes, you read that correctly - although there is currently no FDA approved test for men in a clinical setting, when it comes to research, it's a different story. It's how the researchers were able to say that half of the men had HPV at enrollment.

At each visit, three specimens of penile and scrotal cells were obtained from the coronal sulcus, glans penis, penile shaft, and scrotum for the detection of HPV DNA and for HPV genotyping.

And then we have the bigger picture. The purpose of this study was to inspire the development a cost effective model for vaccinating men. It speaks volumes for why we have to change the way we think about HPV. It's not just scary for women, it's scary and a problem for men too. And it's the responsibility of both genders to be on the lookout for it, to get vaccinated, and to be aware of their status so we can make this virus a thing of the past. HPV causes serious health problems for men and women.

The first thing, and the easiest thing people have to do: get Gardasil.

And the second thing that has to change that's just as important: testing for HPV in men needs to be made available outside of a research setting, period. There's no good reason why not. Why isn't it? No clue, but maybe it's just the myth that it doesn't affect men, so it's not their problem, so there's really no utility in having a test for men, because apparently, you know, knowing your HPV status is useless information. Reason begs to differ. Men deserve to know for the same reason that women deserve to know: so that they can protect themselves and their partners.