bad medical advice

Just thought I'd address a reader question for everyone's info. Here's the q:

"Hey madman, have a medical related question, saw a scary article about the high incidence of throat cancer among gay men, thought to be from herpes exposure. Thinking about getting the hpv vaccine, it's three injections at $180 a pop. Thoughts??"

First let me preface by saying my medical advice does not take the place of a real discussion with your primary care doc. For all you guys know I am just some creep in a basement making all this shit up, so take anything medical you read from me (or any other site) with a grain of salt. And anyway even though I promise I'm for real, I'm still just a stupid intern fresh outta med school. But here goes..

I've not heard anything about throat cancer and the herpes simplex virus. (the kind of herpes that everyones goes ewwww about). You may be having this confused with HPV, the human papilloma virus. There's a few types of this virus and they most commonly cause genital warts (ew). Other strains are strongly implicated in the development of cervical cancer in women. That's why there's now the vaccine for women against the most common virus strains of HPV to hopefully prevent the development of cervical cancer (and also those unsightly genital warts). But besides cervical cancer, HPV is also implicated in anal cancer, and in my 5 minute google research, some cases of throat cancer. Theoretically then, men getting the vaccine would be protected from HPV and the risk of getting these kind of cancers. This is assuming you get the vaccine before you ever get infected with HPV, as once you get it it's kind of with you forever. (that's why there was the push to have girls get it before they become sexually active)

So cancer is pretty scary. Is getting anal or throat cancer from HPV something you should be afraid of? Probably not. The wiki on anal cancer says there were 5300 new cases in 2009. The wiki for esophageal cancer (throat cancer) says there were 15000 new cases of esophageal cancer. Those are really small numbers. Add to the fact that only a small percentage of these cases were probably due to HPV. Rather than running out to get the HPV vaccine to ward off this small risk of cancer, you'd probably be better off doing something else for your health like cutting a few pounds or stopping smoking, as things like heart disease, obesity, and tobacco are the things that really get people sick in America.

It's always smart to practice safe sex and limit the number of sexual partners you have, but hey we all like to have our fun. Rather than get all paranoid that every blow job you give is getting you one step closer to cancer, just try to be a little smart and know who you're blowing. But for god's sakes do wear a condom when you're fucking. HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis are all still very real STDs you can get. Even the most normal looking guys can be one of those crazy closet bareback cum sluts so don't trust anyone when they say they're clean. Just wrap the damn dick. Not worth it!