Getting laid without getting HPV

October 17, 2006 11:48 PM

Other than abstinence, condoms and being careful, if there anything that can be done to help avoid catching HPV?

I've read the many other HPV threads here but I didn't find this covered and need to know, so:

Is there anything that can be done in advance of sexual contact with someone who probably/might have it that would help boost the immune system to aid it in fighting off the virus? Assume that I'm in good health, eat well, do not smoke, etc... and want to give my system a fighting chance. Is there anything out there that can assist in this?

Please don't answer this question by telling me that I probably already have it. I don't... and that's not the information I'm looking for. I am only looking for info on possible ideas for stuff such as vitamins or herbs or supplements (or...?) that can help the body to help itself to not catch this. For example, might taking something like Echinacea help?

Or am I doomed to just have worrisome sex with this person and then spend the next year checking myself for warts? I'd love to go thru with this in a way that will lesson the likelihood of contracting the virus, and help to put myself at ease so that I can enjoy myself while doing the deed. The alternative being not having sex with someone that I'd really like to, who isn't even positive that he's been exposed (he's never shown any symptoms). I don't want to not sleep with him just because it's possible he's got it, but I'd like to protect myself as best as possible (yes, I wanna have my cake and eat it too!).

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (23 answers total)

There's a vaccine.
posted by willnot at 11:52 PM on October 17, 2006

Assuming you're correct that you don't have HPV, is there something that's preventing you from getting the vaccine? Gardasil is available in the US now. You will have to pay about $360, but if you're a student (for example) the price may be less, or insurance may cover a little of the cost.

The trouble with the vaccine is that you'll have to wait six months to finish the course. But as worried as you seem to be -- wouldn't it be nice to have some reassurance you almost certainly won't get HPV?
posted by booksandlibretti at 11:58 PM on October 17, 2006

Could he get tested?
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:59 PM on October 17, 2006

If you're a female, the best prevention is the recently released vaccine, named in previous posts. Many physicians will only give the vaccine to women ages 15-mid 20's who have not yet had sexual intercourse. If you do not fall into this category, they will usually not give this to you, due to the probability of you already having some HPV variant. Essentially, the majority of the late-teens through 20's population currently have some variant of HPV, its fairly unavoidable (I want to say 86% of sexually-active women.) Unless a woman is infected with a high-risk variant which may be evidenced in abnormal PAP results, the individual will usually remain asymptomatic. The low-risk variants are kept in check by the immune system of a healthy individual, so taking herbs or supplements won't affect much of anything.

Use condoms, ask your partner to complete a full-screen of STI tests before sex if you'd like, or get tested together for STIs of a much more worrysome nature, e.g. HIV.
posted by Asherah at 12:10 AM on October 18, 2006

The trouble with the vaccine is that you'll have to wait six months to finish the course.

I asked my doctor about this, about starting the course and not being able to afford the subsequent shots, and she told me that one shot is something like 95% effective, and the other two bring it closer to 99.9% effective. So if you can't do all three shots, the first one still does you a lot of good.
posted by rhapsodie at 12:14 AM on October 18, 2006 [2 favorites]

Many physicians will only give the vaccine to women ages 15-mid 20's who have not yet had sexual intercourse.

And my doctor's office was giving it to women between 11 and 26, regardless of sexual history. Doesn't hurt to check on it.
posted by rhapsodie at 12:16 AM on October 18, 2006

Hrm. This sounds like a very one sided issue.
I suggest that both of you go together and get tested.

Don't waste your time with homeopathic remedies. There isn't an herb you can smoke or a vitamin that you can take to prevent contracting HPV. There is the vaccine that the others have mentioned, but if you only want to hear about natural supplements & stuff, you're out of luck.

If you don't want to go with the vaccine, it sounds like you're doomed to worrysome sex with someone that you've already pegged as being infected. Do him a favor and don't sleep with him. The guilt trip won't help anybody.
posted by drstein at 12:17 AM on October 18, 2006

If she's over 26 she can't get the vaccine.

Also, there is no real test for men. The only way he would know is if he saw visibile signs.
posted by RoseovSharon at 12:44 AM on October 18, 2006

Cervarix is supposed to be approved by the end of the year for use in women over 26. Furthermore, the only reason why Gardasil is only recommended for 9-26 is that that was the age group tested; it won't hurt older women and would probably help. (I am over 26 and am wondering what would happen if I asked for it.)
posted by Violet Hour at 1:47 AM on October 18, 2006

(I'm not the only one wondering.)
posted by Violet Hour at 1:52 AM on October 18, 2006

I doomed to just have worrisome sex with this person and then spend the next year checking myself for warts?

I highly suggest first that you get the vaccine because if you have intercourse with anyone there is something like a 90 percent chance you will be exposed to HPV. My doctor refers to it as the "common cold" of STDs.

Secondly, I also highly recommend you do some research on exactly what HPV is, how it is transmitted, how common it is and how dangerous it is. The website for Planned Parenthood can help you find this information.

I say this because there are over 100 different strains of HPV, but only two types, #6 and #11, account for more than 90 percent of the genital warts cases. You should be far more concerned with developing cerivcal cancer, most cases of which are caused by types 16 and 18, two strains that are NOT linked to genital warts.

don't answer this question by telling me that I probably already have it. I don't

Since the vast majority of sexually active people have been exposed to HPV, and there is no test for HPV (there are only tests for the symptoms that HPV causes), and also because the vast majority of people who have HVP are symptom free, there is really no way to know you don't have it unless you have never had sex with anyone. Even then, you might still have one of the strains not considered an STD, such as oral herpes or cutaneous warts.

If you are exposed to HPV and test positive for the symptoms (such as cervical dysplasia) there is also a strong possibility that if you are in a monogomous long-term relationship both partners can develop an immunity to the disease. This is what happened to me. After three years of cancer scares and colposcopies and biopsies, I have finally had a enough normal paps in a row to be cleared of symptoms.

Sorry to harp but I feel there is a lot of misinformation about this disease out there and weeding through the crap to find the truth following a scary-as-hell diagnosis is something that I wouldn't want anyone else to have to deal with.
posted by Brittanie at 5:20 AM on October 18, 2006

Just FYI, Echinacea doesn't do anything for anyone. It has negligible to no effect on your "immune system," despite all the bullshit you hear. There is no such thing as an "immune system booster" as such, and certainly no herbal supplement that has any such effect.
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:28 AM on October 18, 2006

Many physicians will only give the vaccine to women ages 15-mid 20's who have not yet had sexual intercourse. If you do not fall into this category, they will usually not give this to you, due to the probability of you already having some HPV variant.

Not true at all. My doctor (and the sheet from Gardasil I happen to have right in front of me) said they will give the vaccine to all women under the age of 27, regardless of sexual history, even if you already have a strain of HPV, as it protects against multiple strains. Many insurance plans cover it, as well. It's three shots- one at X date, one 2 months after X, and one six months after X.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:30 AM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite]

Good post Brittanie, but a few corrections: oral herpes is NOT a strain of the HPV virus, but rather the HSV virus. Also, there is in fact a test for HPV itself, but it's only for women, and it only catches an active infection. In other words, even if the anonymous poster has had a negative HPV test, she may have been exposed in the past and fought off the infection; or she may have the virus at a nondetectable level.

The upshot is: if you're going to have sex, there's no way to guarantee you won't be exposed to the virus. You can minimize your exposure by using condoms and limiting the number of partners. If you have had sex, you really cannot say "I don't have HPV" with confidence. (Unless you and your only other partner were virgins, I guess.)

Another thing -- the vaccine has been recommended by an advisory panel of the FDA for use up to 26 years. But once the drug is on the market, doctors can go "off-label" and prescribe it in different ways. So if you're over 26 and want the vaccine, you just need to look around for a doctor who will give it to you.
posted by insideout at 6:03 AM on October 18, 2006

In case you missed it, what Asherah said bears repeating:

Use condoms, ask your partner to complete a full-screen of STI tests before sex if you'd like, or get tested together for STIs of a much more worrysome nature, e.g. HIV.

Other STDs could be a lot worse to deal with than HPV.
posted by Robert Angelo at 6:12 AM on October 18, 2006

Is there a reason -- other than "you probably have HPV anyhow" -- that a woman older than 26 shouldn't get the vaccine?

I know a few women who haven't had sex yet or who have only had one sexual partner, and it seems to me that they could benefit from the shots if they don't magically transform from "Prevents HPV" shots for 20-somethings to "Kills you and rots your brain" shots for 30-somethings.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 7:24 AM on October 18, 2006

Again, I repeat, the vaccine is approved for ALL people under the age of 27, including those who already have HPV. Gardasil protects against 4 strains of HPV; the info sheet for the manufacturer explains that even if you have one strain, the vaccine will protect you from the other strains you don't have.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:56 AM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite]

I wanted to give Brittanie a "big hand" for what she posted! I agree that there is such muddled information out there - the biggest thing that bothers me is that you're supposed to think HPV = warts and other external symptoms. This is not always true, and that is what can lead to cervical cancer, because you don't SEE anything to think anything is wrong (without regular check-ups).
I had a similar situation - although I've yet to officially become immune to it over the course of time.
About 18 months ago I went for a regular check up, and the general practice doctor told me I had abnormal results (the way she said it, I was convinced I had cancer and was dying) and sent me to an OBGYN. I had to get a colposcopy (no fun) and she said over time my body would fight it off itself. And, a year later, it has! My test results finally came back normal.
However, the GYN I went to informed me that even if you wear a condom, you're not guaranteed to NOT get HPV from a male carrier. It's about skin contact more than one would think. That kinda concerned me. I also am not sure if men can get tested for it.
Also, as far as the vaccine goes, my doctor told me I was the perfect candidate for it. I'm 24, sexually active and "recovered" from HPV, so I definitely disagree with the idea that it's only for girls 11-20 who haven't had sex before.
posted by slyboots421 at 8:15 AM on October 18, 2006

There's probably no harm in getting the vaccine if you're already sexually active, except for the fact that it's expensive and may not actually protect you from anything if you've already been exposed.

But a more general level, I think it's very important for people to understand that the vaccine may not do as much good if you wait until after you're sexually active. People shouldn't get the impression that they can just wait around and get the vaccine later in life, because that might stop the vaccine from getting to the people it really can help best: girls who haven't had sex yet.
posted by insideout at 8:56 AM on October 18, 2006

In case anon is a guy: They're currently testing the HPV vaccine for guys, too, so it might be worth asking your doctor about even if you're male. It looks (from news articles) like they're testing the same vaccine, not developing a new one, so your doctor may have a good sense of whether it's effective in men.
posted by occhiblu at 9:29 AM on October 18, 2006

I don't know if you're still reading this, but GET THE FUCKING VACCINE. That's it. That's all. That is the only real, tested, proven way to protect yourself. You can cram pounds of herbs and vitamins and the Colonel's spices up your ass all day, but only the vaccine will prevent contraction of HPV. You kids today are lucky as hell to have it, so don't squander this opportunity.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 9:36 PM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite]

Why do you guys keep assuming this person is under 26 and able to get the vaccine? She probably wouldn't have asked this question if the vaccine was an option.
posted by RoseovSharon at 1:20 PM on October 19, 2006 [1 favorite]

Given that anonymous didn't mention the vaccine in his/her question and that the vaccine is the only proven prevention method against HPV, I think it's fair to assume that anonymous is possibly unaware of the vaccine, and to encourage him/her to look into it. If it keeps being repeated, it's because it's really the only correct answer.
posted by curie at 4:28 PM on October 19, 2006