Why don't they test men for the cancer causing strains of HPV, like they do women?

i think I read somewhere that they can not test men for it.

But it’s a blood test, i think….? so if it’s in women’s blood, wouldn’t it be in men’s?

I read somewhere that they have made a vaccine for men. much like the womens’ vaccine.

I actually believe it’s the same vaccine, not sure, but the question about that was whether parents of young men, and young men can be convinced to take it since the incidence of cancer is much lower in men. I still want to know why they don’t test men. Since 50% of people who have sex will get some form of HPV over their lives, are we going to see a lot of women dying of cervical cancer in the future? not to mention the genital warts from the other strains….why don’t they test men??????

Okay, I was wrong, it is a sample of the genital sin that is tested for the virus. I still don’t understand how I can prevent catching cancer causing hpv if there is no way to know if a new partner/boyfriend has it. Am i just supposed to catch a cancer-causing virus, la de da? With no way for he or I to know about it? I imagine they could just scrape a bit of skin from the glans and test it, no?

skin, genital skin, not sin :)

I don’t know as much about it as I should, but I tested positive for it, when the only guy I have slept with did not. Make your own conclusions from that, but it sucks.

Yes, there should be a better test for men, since both of us were tested before having intimate relations.

Get yourself vaccinated, after you have tested negative. Then you needn’t worry whether your potential partner has it or not.

Evol asked, Since 50% of people who have sex will get some form of HPV over their lives, are we going to see a lot of women dying of cervical cancer in the future?

The answer simply has to be no. The highest HPV infection (and thus cervical cancer) rates are seen today because there was no vaccine in the past, and many people weren’t as protective having sex during the past forty years as we are now. With the existence of the vaccine (which I believe is becoming mandatory here in Canada), and with people having safer sex, we should be seeing a drop in cervical cancer over the next generation.

Please note as well that not all HPV strains cause cancer. Out of 130 types of HPV, only a dozen may cause cancer, and only 30–40 strains can be transfered through sex. Some more data, the vaccine Gardasil guards against HPV types 16 and 18 which cause 70% of cervical cancer. So to answer your concern about how to not catch a cancer-causing HPV, get this vaccine.

The easiest answer to your base question is twofold. It’s simply too expensive and time consuming to test men for the specific types of harmful HPV. Plus, at what age would you do it? How often? What if the man is tested clean then gets infected? What if the man knows he has it and purposely infects others? It’s more logical and efficient to focus on creating a defense for the women who get infected, then to be able to identify that a man carries the strain, because identifying it does nothing to solving the core issue of cervical cancer, whereas the female defense does.

@dynamicduo, it’s not just women who are at risk. Merck & Co. need to step it up and get crack-a-lackin’ on clinical trials for men. The FDA does not approve Gardasil for use in men, even though the same strains of HPV cause cervical and anal cancer. Some doctors will administer the vaccine to men, but most insurance companies won’t cover it, since it’s FDA unapproved.

Totally fucking stupid! People are dying!

I did see mention of anal cancer in my research, but had not pursued it further. Thanks for letting me know tonedef. Hopefully the successful adoption of the vaccine for women will let them focus on male trials now.

Ok, so there is no fda-approved test for men, apparently

and apparently, jane anne, you can catch it from someone even if you don’t sleep with them.

A : well, I wouldn’t need to worry if my partner has the 2 most common forms of cancer-causing hpv. I would still have to worry about the genital wart kinds and the kinds they don’t know what it does yet and the other, rarer, cancer-causing kinds.

dynamic duo : So there is no way to elimate the risk, just reduce it, since even with the vaccine you are still at risk for catching the HPV viruses that cause the other 30% of cervical cancers caused by HPV.

I don’t see how partial protection is any real kind of solution. at least on the individual level.

Also the HPV vaccine is only for women under 27. I know some doctors will be flexible on this, but what if you are too old? What about those women? What about the women who have it now, and they are 30, or 40 – are we going to see a spike in cervical cancer and then a decline….?

Just seems like there is no 100% protection (only 70%). And the good old days of, “let’s both get tested and be in a committed relationship and have unprotected sex,” are over. Because even if you do it smart, get tested, etc, even get the vaccine, the man could STILL unwittingly give you something that could KILL you down the line

Seems to me like it is too expensive and time consuming to test men because this is a problem that effects women, mostly. I think it should be tested for like any other std in men.

Also, they test men for HIV – and there have been some cases where HIV positive men have intentionally infected women, so I don’t think your logic holds water here, dynamicduo.

I just don’t see how a partial defense is any defense.

And the vaccine seems to be used as an excuse not to educate people about the risk.

But again, what about all the women too old to qualify for the vaccine?

In the early 90’s I remember reading about how 50% of the women at UCLA had HPV. At that time, they were, LOL, calling it HFPV (human female papoillomavirus)....and I just don’t understand why no-one did anything about this problem 20 years ago – b/c they knew about it.

I just feel like – with such a risk of still catching a cancer-causing HPV, or risk of catching a genital wart causing HPV, even if I get the vaccine – I feel like there is no longer any way of protecting oneself except for abstinence…..and I love sex :(

gross ignorace

for the same reason rarely are people tested for the

THREE DOZEN other STDs

condoms are only studied to REDUCE risk of HIV.

condoms are ineffective against DOZENS of STDs.

condoms are too porous to stop HPV

condoms have an FDA documented ~%14 failure rate

/

female birth control, whether chemical or mechanical, is ABORTIFACIENT not contraceptive

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who cares if it’s an abortifacient and not a contraceptive? this thread is about hpv and stds. Are you a mad pro-lifer pro-abistinence hijacking this thread to spread fear? You sound like a fear monger, cause a lot of your info is wrong. actually they don’t test men for hpv because there is no test for it, i found out from asking this question. they need a sample of the ol dong tissue. Guess they don’t want to make a test that involves that