HPV, the New ‘Sex Cold’
October 27, 2006 by Vixen
Recently, Moxie had a great thread in her blog about HPV. (Human papilloma virus - “Papilloma means a growth or wart, which is why HPV is also known as the ‘wart virus’. In practical terms, however, only about 10% of people with HPV develop warts. The vast majority of people with HPV don’t, and are therefore unlikely to know that they are infected or that they may be passing the virus to their sexual partner(s).” Source) In it, she got asked by a reader what her thoughts were on the fact that his new girlfriend confided in him that she has HPV. She threw the question to her readers, starting a debate that soon grew into a multiple sided issue. It turns out, alot of sexually active people don’t know diddly squat about STDs, especially HPV. In the thread there was alot of misinformation as well as negative slants on the progression and contagious nature of the virus. More seemed shocked that Moxie didn’t know that much about it and failed to realise that they barely knew anything about it themselves.HPV seems to be more rampant now than even AIDS is. Apparently 80% of sexually active people in the United States are infected, and most don’t even know it. In addition to that, males have the propensity to carry the virus and transfer it to women who don’t realise they have anything wrong with them until warts appear or it leads to cervical cancer. There are many strains of HPV, apparently hundreds, and not all of them lead to cervical cancer, but it’s a chance that we should not be willing to take.
Condoms, although not 100% effective still show the best protection against this virus. At least until the HPV vaccine is in mass production & use, but even then, it will only protect against most strains of the virus but not all.
Fortunately, our bodies are geared up to fight this as well. Most immune systems can process and get rid of the virus within 12 months since inception, however there is a possibility that you might get infected by another strain in the future.
HPV is becoming as common as the cold. And that is just friggin’ scary.
Your thoughts?
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My thoughts? Just the obvious — don’t take a sexual partner less than a year after you first ‘got busy’ with the current (last?) one. Pick a partner you intend to be strictly and totally monogamous with for the next year, and that you trust will be doing the same. Then actually live chaste outside your relationship.
There was a report I heard on the radio in 1982, that the more sexual partners a woman had, the more likely she would develop cervical cancer. In the last couple of years this correlation has been linked to HPV.
Thanks for your message! I hope everyone realizes that it is both guys and gals that are affected, and both guys and gals are needed to find a way out of this mess.
More than ever, the onus is on everyone to protect yourself and your partners by taking precautions. Thanks for spreading the word.
Andrew (”To Love, Honor and Dismay”)