Sunday, May 16, 2004

Genital Warts/HPV

I don't know how many times I've been a scold about condom failures or inadequacies, but apparently the word isn't getting around. So let's try this again, focusing on human papilloma virus (HPV), aka condyloma acuminata or "genital warts". Here are a few bullets:Did you get that last one? If condoms were 100% effective they wouldn't necessarily help, and the more adventurous you get the more ways you can get it.

So let's boil this down - it's common, once you have it you can transmit it forever, there's more than one strain so you can always get it again, you can't always tell if you have it (much less if your partner does), if condoms were 100% effective they couldn't stop it, and it can cause cancer. That's right, sweetie - you might be more likely to get cancer from those smelly hippies you hooked up with at the protest than from the nuke plant or waste dump you were protesting.

(I'm not a physician, but you guys out there shouldn't be too cocky. Women might have to deal with cervical cancer, but it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find a connection between HPV and prostate cancers. I'm guessing that that isn't really high-priority research - there aren't many men's health pressure groups out there that I know of.)

Want a source for the above information and more? OK, but be aware that it contains pictures of the condition at the bottom of the page, which I'm guessing are NSFW. Thus warned, look here. Also, there's the American Social Health Association's site here, which covers many other topics besides.

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