Can men become infected with the HPV Virus?

Answer 1

Yes they can and they CAN have symptoms. A lot of people think men are just "carriers" of HPV and that's not true. Most people have no symptoms of the virus, but that doesn't mean they aren't directly affected by it. Some men will develop warts (including genital warts) from their HPV and rarely HPV can lead to penile and anal cancer which affects men.

My fiance has HPV and last year he had an outbreak of genital warts. So, obviously, it can and DOES affect men directly.

Answer 2

Of course they can. There are many different strains of HPV including the ones that cause genital warts.

Answer 3

well yeah. how in the hell do you think women get it? women are just usually the ones with the symptoms or shows up with abnormal pap smear.

Answer 4

I believe they carry it, but don't know if they have symptoms.

Answer 5

Men acquire the virus as ofen as women do.

There is no FDA approved test for the male. Men are not routinely screen as women are. HPV screening is not included in STI testing.

Most men with HPV do not know they carry the virus.

Clinical trails are underway to see if the Gardasil vaccine (the HPV vaccine) will prove of benifit for the male.

Here is more information on HPV in the male.

A report published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical
Association reported a 26.8 percent prevalence of HPV in women.
Giuliano's preliminary research on men shows a prevalence of 59.4
percent

"We're seeing a really high prevalence in men, and we see little
change in prevalence across the age span," says Giuliano, who found
the 60% prevalence rate in one of her studies. That data will be
published later this spring in the journal Cancer Epidemiology
Biomarkers & Prevention. "We need to know if women in their 40s and
50s are acquiring new infections from their partners."

HPV infection isn't inconsequential in men. Certain strains of the
virus are known to cause genital warts in men as well as women.

And those infections are estimated to be the cause of about half of
all anal, penile, vulvar and vaginal cancers and about 20% of the
cause of all oral cancers, says Dr. Dean Blumberg, an associate
professor of pediatric infectious disease at UC Davis. Blumberg is a
member of Merck's speakers bureau but does not get paid directly by
Merck for his services. A speaker's bureau is a roster of experts who
provide educational lectures on particular topics.

About 28,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral cancers each year, and
about 4,650 are diagnosed with anal cancer. Penile cancer affects
about 1,500 men each year. Although the overall risk of those
diseases is low, anal cancer in gay and bisexual men has been rising
in recent years.

Worldwide, the consequences of HPV infection in both men and women
are even more severe than in the United States, notes Broker,
president of the nonprofit International Papillomavirus Society.

More women in developing countries die of cervical cancer than in the
United States, he says. Moreover, "we need to know how much real
disease men are getting. If you look worldwide, there are about
100,000 new cases of penile cancer each year

This virus can cause cancers in a lot of different places," says
Blumberg. "But in terms of numbers, it doesn't compare to the number
of cervical cancer cases."

"If you decrease HPV infection in men, then there will be decreased
transmission to women also," Blumberg says.

There is "no guarantee" an HPV vaccine will work in men, Broker says,
because the skin cells infected by the virus differ greatly in men
and women.


Reuters Health) Jan 10 - Human papilloma virus (HPV) is
associated
with flat penile lesions that are more common and larger in size in
partners
of women with HPV-related cervical disease, according to a report in
the
January 1st 2005
issue of the International Journal of Cancer.

60.4% of male partners of women
with CIN
had flat penile lesions, and three quarters of these men had lesions
affecting more than 5 square millimeters.

As far as we can extrapolate from our study, only a very small part
(less
than 1%) of these lesions will become malignant," Dr. Meijer
added. "Most of
these lesions will heal by themselves.

As far as we can extrapolate from our study, only a very small part
(less
than 1%) of these lesions will become malignant," Dr. Meijer
added. "Most of
these lesions will heal by themselves. But the healing time differs
(from 8
months to 14 months). This depends on the presence of HPV...and use of
condoms."

Bleeker MC,
Snijders PF,
Voorhorst FJ,
Meijer CJ.
Department of Pathology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Although it has been widely accepted that high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) is sexually transmitted, limited insight is available about the clinical manifestations of hrHPV infection in men and their contribution in the viral spread. Here, we reviewed the literature on the relationship between hrHPV and the presence of penile lesions. Flat penile lesions have similar predilection sites as HPV, often contain hrHPV as identified by DNA in situ hybridization in biopsy specimens, show a high association with hrHPV as identified by PCR in penile scrapes of lesional sites and are associated with high viral copy numbers. Absence of flat lesions is generally associated with very low HPV copy numbers or absence of HPV. Therefore, we argue that these lesions form the reservoir of hrHPV in men and contribute to the viral spread. Their bare visibility with the naked eye and their high degree of spontaneous healing explain why flat penile lesions have slipped the attention of the clinician. Combining an HPV DNA test with a visual inspection after acetic acid application offers a more reliable interpretation of a positive HPV test in men, as it helps to distinguish positivity that is very likely to reflect a productive HPV infection from potentially HPV infections with very low copy numbers or HPV contamination by the sex partner. Future trials of HPV vaccines in men should take into account not only the presence of penile HPV but also the presence of flat penile lesions as an outcome measure for the efficacy of a vaccine.
PMID: 16988942 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
HPV in sperm
http://www.fairfaxcryobank.com/hpv.aspx