What You Need to Know Now About HPV

Human papillomavirus, HPV, is the most frequently transmitted sexual disease in the United States and in many countries around the world. Most people know that the virus can lead to cervical cancer in some women, genital warts and anal cancer in men. Many people probably don't know that HPV is now considered to be the leading cause of mouth and throat cancers among Americans, per research published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

What used to be an infection that generally had health consequences for women, especially cervical cancer, is now poised to become a concern for men in the area of mouth and throat cancers. Dr. Maura Gillison, oncologist at Ohio State University and one of the researchers in the Journal of Clinical Oncology article, projects that if HPV-related mouth and throat cancers continue to develop at the current rate, such cancers will be the leading cause of all head and neck cancers.

What Is HPV?

Human papillomaviruses number more than 100 different types, with more than 30 of those types specifically causing infections of the genital area. In a 2004 report to Congress, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 5.5 million Americans are newly infected with some type of genital HPV each year. Twenty million people are infected with HPV in the United States.

The HPV types affecting the genital area may cause genital warts--warts that may be either on the outer portion of the sexual organs and area or the inner portion of the vagina and anus. Untreated HPV genital viruses can lead to cervical, vaginal, vulvar or anal cancer.

Risk Factors for HPV

As more and more individuals are infected with HPV, a condition that often presents no symptoms, it stands to reason that the likelihood for any one person to become infected will increase with the number of sexual partners--or the number of sexual partners of your sexual partner. HPV does not discriminate between homosexual or heterosexual people; both groups are equally susceptible.

Number of sexual partners--and the number of sexual contacts your sexual partner has had--is the number one risk factor for acquiring an HPV infection. Also, the younger the age of first intercourse or oral sex also factors into your infection risk. Uncircumcised men are more likely to develop an HPV infection; women whose partners are uncircumcised also have an increased risk.

Both the Mayo Clinic and the CDC agree that any persons who are immune-compromised, such as people taking steroids, on renal dialysis, post organ transplant, or HIV infected run an increased risk of developing an HPV infection.

Prevention of HPV Infection

Since the sexual revolution in the United States in the 1960s, it is not unusual for individuals to have more than one sexual partner during a lifetime. The number one preventive measure to decrease your chances of acquiring an HPV infection is to be in a mutually monogamous sexual relationship. If that is not on the horizon, at least limit the number of partners with whom you have sex.

The use of latex condoms may limit your exposure to HPV, but condoms do not afford fool-proof transmission of all HPV types.

Vaccinations afford protection to young males and females against the strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer. The vaccine, Gardisil, protects not only against cervical cancer, but also genital warts and anal cancer. The other vaccine on the market, Cervarix, only protects against cervical cancer. Parents who wish to protect their sons as well as their daughters from these HPV infections in later life should choose the Gardisil vaccine.

The vaccine, which is administered in three separate doses, is currently recommended for girls and boys between the ages of 9 to 26 years--before they become sexually active. For the vaccine to provide complete protection, all three doses of the vaccine need to be completed.

Considerations

Up to this time, recommendations for the HPV vaccines have been most strongly urged for females. This may change with the emergence of new scientific information that HPV causes mouth and throat cancers, with males experiencing a higher incidence of these cancers than females.

This new information also needs to be presented to teenagers and young adults as the trend now is for these age groups to engage in oral sex rather than "real" sex.

Mouth and throat cancers, which used to be mostly diagnosed in older tobacco smokers or long-term alcohol users, are now being diagnosed in much younger people. The medical community has found thus far that treating HPV-related cancers of the mouth and throat is meeting with good success. Still, prevention is always better than treatment.


Resources: Journal of Clinical Oncology; October 3, 2011
Bloomberg,com News; "Oral Sex May Cause More Throat Cancer Than Smoking in Men, Researchers Say"; Robert Langreth; October 3, 2011
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Prevention of Genital Human Papillomavirus Infection; January 2004
MayoClinic.com; HPV Infection--Risk Factors; March 12, 2011
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The Vaccine--HPV