Question about HPV Vaccine

[T.C.]

What is the deal with the HPV vaccine for gay men over 26?

I believe I have never been exposed to HPV. In the future, however, I would like to have much more adventurous sex with men. Given the prevalence of HPV, I expect that this puts me at great risk for contracting the virus. Therefore, I would like to get inoculated with the Gardasil vaccine while I am still clean.

My insurance does not cover the vaccine for men over 26. That means I would have to pay out-of-pocket. I've been told that the treatment costs about $360, and that is acceptable to me. I'm trying to move ahead and find out if my health clinic will administer the vaccine to me, but I'm having a hard time getting a definite yes or no.

These are my questions:
1) Is there some argument I've overlooked which makes it not such a good idea to get the vaccine?
2) Is it hard to find a clinic that will administer the vaccine to older men?
3) Are there guys out there who have contracted HPV and either developed genital warts or passed them on to others, who wish they had access to a vaccine earlier in their lives?

-TC

[OrphanPip]

Statistically, people who have had more than one sexual partner have usually already been infected with the common HPV strains connected with cervical, anal, and oral cancer. The insurance guideline is likely based on the efficacy of the vaccine for preventing those strains, which tends to be nil by that age because people have already been infected. When I did my B.S. in microbiology, my undergraduate thesis was on the viability of the Gardasil vaccine for HPV prevention in males, both gay and straight. I don't know what the current status on the vaccine for men is right now, back then, going on 4 years now, the only country where it had limited approval for use in men was Australia. Although, most clinical trials showed that the vaccine is effective and safe in men as well as women. I thought at the time that a targeted vaccination campaign for HIV infected men might be worthwhile, because the warts can be a more serious medical concern for them, and the cancer risk is much higher. The problem of effective HPV vaccination in gay men is that you have to get the vaccine to them young, preferably in their teens, and gay teens have a habit of being difficult to reach. And with the resistance vaccination campaigns got for promoting sex in young girls, just imagine the resistance a vaccine campaign interested in helping to reduce anal and oral cancer in gay men would get.

Getting it for the preventative against the wart causing strains is potentially worthwhile. However, I am not a doctor and am honestly not up to date on the latest clinical research. I would urge you, though, to not think of the vaccine as something that will enable you to have more adventurous sex. These vaccines are effective, but they aren't 100% effective, and you have to worry about more serious viruses, like HIV and Hep C.

[Inchante]

HPV can cause genital warts on men which can be embarrassing and uncomfortable, though there are no known terminal risks for men. However, it is most important to prevent this from being transmitted to women, as several types of cancer in women are related to HPV.

Your decision to get the HPV vaccine should address both these risks as well as any and all side effects associated with the vaccine.

[OrphanPip]

HPV can cause genital warts on men which can be embarrassing and uncomfortable, though there are no known terminal risks for men. However, it is most important to prevent this from being transmitted to women, as several types of cancer in women are related to HPV.

Your decision to get the HPV vaccine should address both these risks as well as any and all side effects associated with the vaccine.

Actually, it is connected to anal and oral cancer in both men and women, the same strains implicated in cervical cancer as well. However, the risk is lower.

[fredv3b]

I believe I have never been exposed to HPV. In the future, however, I would like to have much more adventurous sex with men.

If you expose yourself to HPV then you are exposing yourself to all sorts of other STIs including HIV for which there is no vaccine. HPV vaccination is not a passport to safe-sex without a condom.


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[Gaydude3]

Is there a way to test of you have HPV before getting the vaccine?

[pellaz]

google ( test for HPV in men )
[URL="http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/stdfact-hpv-and-men.htm"]"Is there a test for HPV in men?
Currently, there is no test to find HPV in men. The only approved HPV tests on the market are not useful for screening for HPV-related cancers or genital warts in men. "[/URL]

a significant amount of stuff in this area is transmitted via touch. The Catholics had it right; abstinence is the accepted effective cure.

[OrphanPip]

Is there a way to test of you have HPV before getting the vaccine?

It's possible to test for serum antibodies, but it's usually only done in research settings, as it is generally assumed most people already have asymptomatic infections and so most hospitals only bother to do pap smears to look for possibly cancerous HPV legions. I don't think any quick testing kits have been developed, so most hospitals probably aren't equipped to do HPV ELISAs.

Edit: Also, HPV is not a substantial health risk in men, and is primarily an issue for those who have HIV/HPV co-infections.