Anxiety about HPV and question about vaccine?

[Ryank65]

So I'm a 22 year old male and I've only been sexual with 2 girls in my life. One I dated through highschool and part of college and they other girl was a one night stand about 2 months ago (yes it was mistake and I was drunk). I just read an article today on CNN that stated that 1 in every 5 Americans who carry HPV, have the HPV strain related to cancer. The girl I had the one night stand with has been with many guys before me and I'm worried that she could of passed something like that on to me and plus there's no current HPV test for men. I'm having a little anxiety over this and also wondering about getting an HPV Vaccine. Has anyone gotten the vaccine before or does anyone know any information about this vaccine and it's effectiveness. I have turned down a lot of girls in the past because of this fear. I'm wondering if it's something I should get before becoming sexually active again.

[GlassPinata]

So I'm a 22 year old male and I've only been sexual with 2 girls in my life. One I dated through highschool and part of college and they other girl was a one night stand about 2 months ago (yes it was mistake and I was drunk). I just read an article today on CNN that stated that 1 in every 5 Americans who carry HPV, have the HPV strain related to cancer. The girl I had the one night stand with has been with many guys before me and I'm worried that she could of passed something like that on to me and plus there's no current HPV test for men. I'm having a little anxiety over this and also wondering about getting an HPV Vaccine. Has anyone gotten the vaccine before or does anyone know any information about this vaccine and it's effectiveness. I have turned down a lot of girls in the past because of this fear. I'm wondering if it's something I should get before becoming sexually active again.

Actually, 85% of sexually active Americans have HPV antibodies, which means they have been infected with HPV at some point in their lives.
The "one in five" figure may be how many people currently have active HPV infections. Because the HPV virus is not a lifelong thing. Although there is no cure for it, the vast majority of people clear the virus naturally within 18 months of contracting it. Many of them never even know they had it- especially males, for whom it is usually asymptomatic, although they are able to transmit it to sexual partners for as long as their infections are active.

I do not know if it would be worthwhile for you to get the vaccine at this point, since you are already sexually active; that is something you should speak to your doctor about.
I do know that HPV is not something to live in abject terror of; rather, it's something that has been unavoidable for all previous generations (since the vaccine is relatively recent) and something that the majority of Americans have lived through, most without any damage whatsoever, many without even being aware of it.
About the worst thing that is likely to happen to you, as a male, is that you might contract one of the low-risk strains of the virus- the ones that cause genital warts. Then you might have to get them frozen off. This actually happened to my son when he was a teenager. But he eventually cleared the virus after about a year, and stopped getting warts. It was an embarrassing ordeal, but not life-threatening or anything.

A very small group of individuals, many of them immuno-compromised in some way, develop persistent HPV infections, and those are the ones that can lead to cancer after many years of infection: most commonly cervical cancer, but also throat, anal, and other types.
But this is a tiny percentage of people. The vast majority clear the virus before it causes permanent harm. 93% of infected people clear the virus within eighteen months, and most everyone else within two years.
Only a fraction of a percent develop the type of persistent, long-term infection that leads to cancer.

So, there is really nothing to dread about this virus. It was pretty much unavoidable to folks of my generation (ie, middle-aged), and now young people have a choice: they can get this vaccine, or not. But either way, they're probably going to be okay, you know?
So I do recommend you speak to your doctor about whether this vaccine is the right choice for you, and also just to get more info on HPV. In this case, I believe knowledge is power. HPV is not really the boogeyman you think it is.

Best wishes.