When most people hear the letters HPV, they think about its vaccine or women's health related to cervical cancer. But, HPV is not a gender-specific virus. Men also have a unique and often unknown relationship with HPV.
What is HPV?
Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is a viral infection transmitted through human contact, Student Health Director James Turner explained.
"There are about 50 or 60 types of HPV, and 10 in particular related to causing cervical cancer," Turner said.
Most types of HPV cause relatively few symptoms except for a few isolated warts that can be found anywhere on the body, said Fred Wyand, director of the national HPV and cervical cancer prevention resource center at the American Social Health Association.
"There are many, many different kinds -- some can cause common warts in hands and feet and some have a genetic design that they prefer genital and anal skin," Wyand said.
Let's talk about sex...
HPV is closely linked to a sexually active lifestyle, Wyand said.
"Eighty percent of sexually active people will have one or more HPV infections at some point in their lifetime," he said. "The vast majority don't know they have any HPV infection because it does not have any visible symptoms -- their body just kind of contains it and deals with it on its own, and they never know that it's there."
There is also no evidence suggesting women are more likely to contract HPV than men, Wyand said.
"If you are looking for an equal-opportunity infection, this is really it," he said.
Sexually transmitted HPV can occur through any infected "skin-to-skin" contact, Wyand said.
"Unlike HIV, HPV [infection] is not fluid-based, so basically here you're talking about genital-to-genital contact through vaginal or anal sex," he said. "It can also involve [genital] rubbing and not actual penetration."
Most cases of sexually transmitted HPV occur during the early stages of adult life, Wyand said.
"HPV is seen most highly in younger populations for people in teens and 20s because they come in contact with HPV shortly after they become sexually active," Wyand said, adding that HPV infections "don't often persist through to the 30s and 40s -- sometimes they do but in [a] minority of cases."
There are "roughly two dozen" types of HPV which are sexually transmitted, Wyand explained. These sexually-transmitted types can be grouped into high- and low-risk forms.
"Some are called low risks because they have very little potential for causing cancerous tumors -- these generally cause [genital] warts," he said.
According to Turner, more than 90 percent of venereal warts are caused by two low-risk strains of HPV.
"The high-risk types are those that can lead to cancer," Wyand said.
For men, sexually transmitted HPV is significant because it not only can be spread to women through further sexual contact, potentially causing cervical cancer, but in some cases also has been known to develop into cancer in men, Wyand explained.
Men can potentially contract penile pre-cancer or penile cancer through a high-risk HPV infection, though the likelihood is very small, Wyand said.
According to Turner, younger men mostly have the potential to develop penile pre-cancer, whereas older men develop penile cancer.
Anal-receptive sex with high-risk HPV can also increase a man's chance of getting cancer, Turner said.
There are some ways to prevent the spreading of HPV, Turner explained, adding that without vaccination, however, it is not a sure science.
"HPV is really preventable with the use of barrier contraception," he said. "But condoms aren't always perfect because the [warts associated with the] virus will also occur in the scrotum and pubic area."
Let's hear it for the boys
One of the problems in diagnosing men with potentially high-risk HPV is that there is really no way of testing for it, Turner said.
Though some researchers and doctors are trying to come up with an effective screening process, similar to a pap smear for women, relatively few inroads have been made, Turner said.
Right now, most male HPV analysis must be done on a strictly physical level, he said.
"The best way to test for [genital] warts [related to HPV] is a good physical exam with an expert," he said. "In a man, the warts manifest themselves as small growths on his genitals."
HPV vaccination for men also continues to be a heated debate in medical and social circles, Wyand said.
In addition to the usual issues surrounding the vaccination, such as the suggestion that it might promote sexual promiscuity, most of the controversy revolves around the few seemingly direct complications for men in relation to sexually-transmitted HPV as opposed to those faced by women, he said.
"Primarily there is going to be debate because men don't predominately have these [main] diseases [associated with HPV]," he said. "But, in heterosexual couples, men are the vector for women's infections -- he's in the chain, since women are the ones that really suffer."
Currently, studies are testing the vaccine on male children, and the results are promising, Wyand said.
"As of yet the studies that are looking at [male vaccination] aren't complete yet but ... in the trials that have been done today ... boys have an immune response similar to girls," Wyand said.
According to Turner, who attended a conference in June to discuss this issue, some pharmaceutical companies are moving toward vaccine development and eventual federal approval.
"The study [discussed at the conference] should be completed in a year or two," he said. "After that they will be applying for a license from the FDA to use the vaccine in men"
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