Ladies, please get your HPV vaccine!

From the CDC:

Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI). The virus infects the skin and mucous membranes. There are more than 40 HPV types that can infect the genital areas of men and women, including the skin of the penis, vulva (area outside the vagina), and anus, and the linings of the vagina, cervix, and rectum. You cannot see HPV. Most people who become infected with HPV do not even know they have it.

In case you have been living in a cave, there is now a vaccine for HPV. Although licensed for women and girls age 26 and younger, if I were a provider of any age I would be asking for it (though there is a good chance you are already infected.) Your doc may or may not give it to you, but I would ask. I would like to get the vaccine but they would not give it to me as a man...

We do not yet know if the vaccine is effective in boys or men. It is possible that vaccinating males will have health benefits for them by preventing genital warts and rare cancers, such as penile and anal cancer. It is also possible that vaccinating boys/men will have indirect health benefits for girls/women. Studies are now being done to find out if the vaccine works to prevent HPV infection and disease in males. When more information is available, this vaccine may be licensed and recommended for boys/men as well.

How about the throat for you BBBJ lovers out there?

The most dangerous HPV's, 16 and 18, which are transmitted through sexual contact are known to cause up to 95% of cervical cancers. Now these two HPV's are also being linked to oral cancer.

A study done by Dr. No-Hee Park showed that the mouth was, at the cellular level, structurally very similar to the vagina and cervix.

Can you imagine the stats on us hobby folks?!

At least 50% of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV infection at some point in their lives.

Remember Farrah Fawcett?

Since many, if not most, anal cancers derive from human papillomavirus infections, and since the HPV vaccine prevents infection by some strains of the virus and has been shown to reduce the incidence of potentially precancerous lesions, scientists surmise that HPV vaccination may reduce the incidence of anal cancer.