What You Are Giving Your Partner in the Bedroom That You Don’t Know You Are Giving

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted infection.

According to multiple sources, including the CDC and the Minnesota Dept of Health, more than 90 percent of sexually active men and 80 percent of sexually active women will be infected with HPV in their lifetime.

How does one get HPV? By having vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has the virus. It can also be spread through skin to skin touching, outside of intercourse. The infection can be passed to someone even when they have no signs or symptoms.

Around 50 percent of HPV infections involve certain high-risk types of HPV, which can cause cancer.

Most of the time, the body clears these infections and they do not lead to cancer. However, persistent infections can cause changes that lead to cancer.

HPV-related cancers include cervical, vaginal, vulvar, penile, anal, rectal and oropharyngeal (mouth and pharynx) cancers.

You might find this next fact a big shocking.

There is no test for men.

Currently, only women can be tested for HPV.

Therefore, many men are unknowingly infecting and reinfecting their female partners with this virus.

The medical profession, in its infinite (sic) wisdom, has deemed it a low priority to test men: men don’t usually have bad outcomes from HPV.

But women do have bad outcomes from HPV.

The World Health Organization estimates that globally, 620,000 new cancer cases in women and 70,000 new cancer cases in men were caused by HPV in 2019.

But because men are not at high risk for HPV related cancers, developing a test for men has not made it to a medical priority level.

Since there is a test for women, supposedly we are covered.

Does this make any sense?

Any new partner you have could give you HPV. You could give them HPV. You could keep reinfecting each other.

But its women who bear the brunt of being infected with high risk strains of HPV that have a higher chance of becoming cancerous.

Once again, women get screwed.

You might call it misogyny at work.

A straight man thinks he has no STDs but unless a woman is sleeping with another woman or in a completely monogamous relationship with a man, she has no way of informing her sexual decisions with partners.

Women are being exposed to the virus with each new partner they have.

So are men.

Men think they are STD free when they could be infecting partners with high risk strains of HPV.

Without a test for men, there is no way to know who is infecting whom.

But women are the ones most at risk for HPV related cancers.

Remember: HPV is so common that nearly all sexually active men and women get the virus at some point in their lives.

As my gynecologist concurred with my assessment: it sucks, it is sexist, and the only way to be 100% sure, is don’t have sex.

Here is what you can do:

a. Advocate for a test for men and HPV screening for all with your doctors.

b. Boost your immune system as a daily way of life to fight off this and other viruses.

c. Use antiviral herbs like oil of oregano.

d. Talk about HPV with your sexual partners and protect yourselves.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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From The Good Men Project on Medium

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The Internal Struggle Men Battle in Silence

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