I’m a 26-year-old hetero male, and I recently started hooking up with a new girl. She’s very cute and smart, and I’m really attracted to her. During a recent make-out session she informed me that she has HPV, the STD that causes genital warts. From what I’ve read, condoms don’t necessarily mean you’re safe. I’ve been sexually active for a number of years, and I’ve had unprotected sex with other partners. Could I have HPV already? Can you please shed some light on this disease for me? I really want to have sex with this girl, but not at the risk of screwing up my penis for the rest of my life. –Worrying About Warts
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Before an angry mob of Planned Parenthood educators gathers under my window, let me get this on the record: in the STD galaxy, HPV–aka the human papillomavirus–is a supernova. Twenty million Americans are currently infected with it, and every year six million more contract one of the more than 100 different known strains of the virus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 50 percent of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV infection at some point during their lives. By age 50 at least 80 percent of women will have acquired HPV infection. Some strains of HPV can lead to cancer of the cervix, vulva, anus, or penis; other strains can result in unpleasant and unsightly warts on cocks, balls, pussy flaps, ass lips, etc, and condoms offer only minimal protection.
So even if you have sex with this girl and contract HPV, the odds that you will screw up your penis forever are slight. Sex always carries some risk, WAW, and when the risk is slight and the reward is great, most adults go for it.
Oh, and while we’re on the subject of HPV: Researchers have been hard at work on two vaccines for it that in clinical trials prevented 90 percent of new HPV infections–good news, huh? Not for the religious right. Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council told New Scientist magazine that “giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex.”
There’s a chance this nice guy doesn’t know he has gonorrhea, GB. If a guy’s cock is infected he’ll experience a burning sensation during urination and discharge pus; if his ass is infected, his asshole will become inflamed and it’ll be coated with pus. But a man can have a gonorrhea infection in his throat without experiencing any symptoms at all. So tell him.
