Almost 50% of Men Have HPV
You know HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that can lead to cervical cancer, but you probably don’t know much else about it.
Well, you should, because it’s super common. About one in four people in the US have it, according to the CDC. A new study has found that almost half of men in the US have it too.
45.2% to be exact.
READ ALSO: Erin Andrews Was Secretly Battling Cervical Cancer On DWTS
About 42% of women have HPV at any given time, according to a 2011 study, but the issue isn’t that men have the virus at higher rates. The issue is that HPV has a larger negative impact on women and little to no affect on the average man, leaving men to carry on with their regular sex lives and infect more people.
On average, a person gets cancer caused by HPV every twenty minutes of every day. In both men and women, HPV can result in cancer of the anus/rectum. In men, it can result in penile cancer. But in women, it can also result in cervical, vaginal, anal/rectum, and vulvar cancers.
READ ALSO: HPV Cases Are Drastically Down Thanks to the Vaccine
The problem is, the average person constantly hears about HPV affected women and relating to cervical cancer, but there have previously been few accurate statistics about how many men have the virus.
Because of this, women have been more proactive in preventing it, getting vaccinated for HPV since 2007, and getting often painful pap smears, as recommended by the CDC. But men haven’t been told to get vaccinated until 2011.
Being that it’s 2017, you’d think they’ve had time to get vaccinated by now, but only a little over 10% of men are getting vaccinated.
Hmm… kind of funny how men are the ones who have the highest rate of HPV and have the lowest rates of doing anything about it. Especially when HPV is much less likely to negatively affect men, but is much more likely to result in cervical cancer in women. Just another benefit of being a lady, I guess!
On top of that, HPV can lay dormant in someone for years and there is no FDA approved test for men. So, many guys may have the virus without realizing it.
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This is just another reason why you should get tested regularly, and always make sure that you’re having safe sex. HPV is super common and in many cases it goes away on its own, but there’s always the chance that you could get a strain that causes warts or cancer.
With these new stats showing that nearly half of men in the US have the virus, it’s even more reason why you should protect yourself. Besides, half of men in the US may have HPV, but your dildo doesn’t!
