Oral HPV More Common in Men Than Women

via The New York Times, by Anahad O'Connor


About one in 15 Americans is infected with oral human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted virus that causes throat cancers, and the disease is especially common among men, new research shows.

The research is the first major study to document the nationwide prevalence of oral human papillomavirus, or HPV, a disease that has drawn growing attention from public health experts because it has fueled a rise in oropharyngeal cancers affecting the back of the tongue and the throat. Researchers showed last year that throat cancers caused by a particular strain of the virus, HPV Type 16, have tripled in the last 20 years. But it was unclear exactly how many people over all were carrying HPV, which exists in more than 40 forms.

By looking at thousands of people across the country, the authors of the new report found that 6.9 percent of adults and teenagers are infected with oral HPV of any kind. The virus was about three times as common in men as it was in women. And the scientists identified several behaviors that significantly raised the risk of becoming infected: increasing age, greater sexual activity and smoking cigarettes.

But the study, which was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, also revealed some reassuring findings, said Dr. Maura L. Gillison, the chairwoman of cancer research at Ohio State University and senior author of the paper. While the overall prevalence of HPV was about 7 percent, only 1 percent, or roughly two million people, were infected with HPV 16, the strain linked to throat cancers and many cases of cervical cancer. Fewer than 10,000 cases of throat cancer caused by HPV 16 are diagnosed every year, indicating that most people with the virus do not develop cancer.

Read the rest.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Oral and Anal Sex Practices Among High Schoolers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

via BMC Public Health, by Amsale Cherie and Yemane Berhane

Background

Understanding the full range of sexual behaviors of young people is crucial in developing appropriate interventions to prevent and control sexually transmitted infections including HIV. However, such information is meager in developing countries. The objective of this study was to describe oral and anal sex practices and identify associated factors among high school youth.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among high school youth in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling procedure was followed to select a representative sample of school youth. The total sample size for this study was 3840. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Data analysis was guided by the ecological framework.

Results

The overall proportion of people who reported ever having oral sex was 5.4% (190) and that of anal sex was 4.3% (154). Of these 51.6% (98) had oral sex and 57.1% (87) had anal sex in the past 12 months. Multiple partnerships were reported by 61.2% of the respondents who had oral sex and 51.1% of students practicing anal sex. Consistent condom use was reported by 12.2% of those practicing oral sex and 26.1% of anal sex. Reasons for oral and anal sex included prevention of pregnancy, preserving virginity, and reduction of HIV and STIs transmission. Oral sex practice was strongly and significantly associated with perception of best friends engagement in oral sex (AOR = 5.7; 95% CI 3.6-11.2) and having illiterate mothers (AOR = 11.5; 95%CI 6.4-18.5). Similarly, anal sex practice was strongly and significantly associated with favorable attitude towards anal sex (AOR = 6.2; 95%CI 3.8-12.4), and perceived best friends engagement in anal sex (AOR = 9.7; 95%CI 5.4-17.7).

Conclusion

Considerable proportion of adolescents had engaged in oral and anal sex practices. Multiple sexual partnerships were common while consistent condom use was low. Sexual health education and behavior change communication strategies need to cover a full range of sexual practices.

Read the full study here.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Has anal sex gone out of vogue? What does this mean for HIV prevention?

via the HIV MSM blog

So the Advocate recently reported the findings of a large-scale survey on sexual behaviors.  Apparently, only 37.2% of over 24,000 gay and bisexually identified men indicated that their last sexual encounter consisted of anal sex.   The most practiced activities were kissing (almost 75%) and mutual masturbation (73%).

The survey, entitled  ‘The Gay and Bisexual Men’s National Sex Survey’ was sponsored by Manhunt,  its sexual health affiliate Manhunt Cares (see my past post here about them) and  its research partners, present the findings in a cutesy interactive graphical form which can be accessed from clicking on the picture on the left (i.e. I found out that 80.8 % of surveyed men have eaten cum at some point in their lives!) The abstract of the study, which appears in the Journal of Sexual Medicine can be found here.

Now before we give up our lube and condoms and other devices we find makes our anal sex experience more comfortable, there a few things to keep in mind.  For some reason, the majority of respondents in this latest conducted by researchers from Indiana University and George Mason University were Caucasian males.  Perhaps results would be changed if there was some diversity in the subject pool.  Also, one should note that the respondents were “self identified” gay or bisexual.  Perhaps if behaviors of non-identified men who have sex with men, (i.e. heterosexual identifying men) were recorded the results would also show a higher indication of anal sex.  However, I like the point that one of the commentators made:   Anal sex does require a lot of effort (much like vaginal penile sex as well) and perhaps people don’t want to go through such effort simply to get off.

Read the rest.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

The European MSM Internet Survey (EMIS) - See What They Learned!

via EMIS

This is the second community report written especially for you - members of Europe’s diverse LGBT communities. We hope that you find this information interesting and helpful! The first community report covered testing for HIV, knowledge about testing, being ‘out’, sexual happiness and the ‘sexiest man on the planet’. All EMIS community reports are available in 25 languages at www.emis-project.eu.

In this second report we will focus on a range of topics dealing with sex and the number and type of sexual partners, as well as testing for STIs other than HIV. Please be aware that this information is only preliminary, and that we are in the process of preparing a more detailed report for publication later in 2011. Similar to the previous community report, we have included an overview of the data discussed in this report on page three. When reading the table, if you compare the numbers of EMIS respondents in the left column with the first report, you will notice that they have slightly decreased. This is due to changes in the criteria used to exclude respondents’ data from the study if responses were not consistent. We do our best not to report on data from men who hastily clicked through the survey and who did not provide answers that actually corresponded to their knowledge and experiences.

Who You Had Sex With

In each country a significant number of you, who completed the EMIS questionnaire, did not identify as ‘gay or homosexual’. This means we clearly reached a wide range of men who have sex with men. Indeed, around 15% of all respondents reported having had sex with a woman in the twelve months prior to completing the survey. As the table on page three shows, this went from a low of nearly ‘one in ten’ of you in Belgium (.be), the Netherlands (.nl), Poland (.pl) and France (.fr) to over a quarter of you in Slovenia (.si), Bulgaria (.bg) Romania (.ro) and Bosnia & Herzegovina (.ba).

How Many Men You Had Sex With

In the table on page three you can see in which countries partner numbers were particularly high or low. Many of you (43% to 59%) had between two and ten partners, while having more than ten partners went from 10% to over 25% across the 38 countries. The number of sexual partners tells us a few things, such as, how easy or difficult it is to find partners (because they might not be ‘out’ or there might be no places or venues for you to meet). This may also tell us about how hard it might be for many of you to build steady relationships, particularly in societies where same sex couples are not officially recognised or allowed. Of course many men choose to have multiple sex partners. It is advised that the more partners you have, the more often you need to have a sexual health check-up.

Where You Met Men to Have Sex

We asked you where you met your last non-steady male sex partner (of those who had a non-steady partner in the last twelve months). The most common response was “on the Internet”, followed by various sex venues including gay saunas and backrooms of bars and clubs.

Read the rest.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Give Gardasil to boys too, experts say

Source

Recent evidence shows the human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer in women, is poised to become one of the leading causes of oral cancer in men because of changing sexual behaviours.

The findings have reignited the debate over whether boys should be given the cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil.

A visiting British virologist, Professor Margaret Stanley, says governments around the world need to examine the long-term economic and health benefits of immunising boys and young men.

The head of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Melbourne's Royal Women's Hospital, Professor Suzanne Garland, says Australia is leading the way in the rollout of the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, which immunises against HPV.

"We are in our third year of rolling out the vaccine and we are in the order in the school-based group, in the high 70s, whereas in many other countries, they have only got 30 per cent who have been vaccinated," she said.

But now the vaccination debate has switched genders.

There are growing calls from the medical community for boys and young men to also be vaccinated against HPV.

Advocates include one of Britain's top cervical cancer specialists, Professor Margaret Stanley from Cambridge University, who says a cervical cancer jab in the arms of boys would not just be for the sake of girls.

"These HPVs don't just cause cancer in women. They cause it in men as well. Cancer in the mouth, cancer in the anus and those cancers are very hard to treat," she said.

Read the rest.

Let's all start sucking around!

by Jan Wijngaarden

Fridae’s Men’s Sexual Health columnist Jan Wijngaarden wonders why oral sex has not been as widely recommended as a 'safer option' given that it has been found to be of much lower risk compared to anal sex.

A while ago, a friend of mine, who is around 55 years old and from Europe, sadly looked back on his life during a birthday dinner. He said that none of his (gay) friends from when he was in his twenties and thirties was alive to celebrate his birthday with him. They had all died - most of them, by far, died of AIDS.

I was intrigued. Why did he survive? Was he immune, or what? Or was he the only one who used condoms? When we were alone, after the dinner was finished, I decided to ask him.

He said: "Condoms? Nobody used them at that time. It was true; I had syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia several times, but those could be treated easily. That was not it, for sure."

So, what then? He answered: "It is the fact that I HATE anal sex which must have saved my life!"

It is an interesting conclusion, with a lot of truth in it. Anal intercourse is the sexual behaviour which is - by far - most likely to transmit HIV among gay men (and - much less well known - maybe among some heterosexuals, too).

Read the rest.