Good question. Men can rely on the test results of their current female partner. If their partner is positive, they should assume they have it too depending on if they only had safe sex (condoms give 50% protection) as well as the amount of sex they had with this partner since not everyone gets infected on the first or second sex encounter.
A biopsy of an active genital wart is the other method for men. 50% of all infected (men and women) get no warts. Not to mention, the high risk strains do not produce warts. This is why men are usually the carriers. They don't see anything on them and think they are clean. What the CDC is saying is that anyone (men and women) who have had 4 or more sex partners in their entire life is probably infected regardless if they have warts or not. Its a 20% per partner prediction and when you reach the 80% threshold, you have a good chance of being infected. So if the man has slept with10 partners in his entire life, then at 200% - he's probably infected. Unless he has been vaccinated before any sex contact and had the good fortune to only sleep with women who don't have it or have the particular strains that are covered in the vaccine. Basically, if any sexually active man says he's clean - he is either lying to himself or is ignorant due to no symptoms. Or he has not slept around much. Some gay men are getting anal smears to find out but that is because they have anal sex done to them.
The only other option is for doctors to scrape skin all over a man's genital area & their legs and biopsy that skin. No doctor is going to do this because you cannot scrape skin everywhere.
Oral HPV is also a mystery. There is no FDA approved test for anyone (men and women) to determine if they have it orally. When symptoms occur, then you will know.
If you wan to get rich, invent a blood test for men. Or a drug that will prevent transmission.
One more thing to depress you - There is no booster shot for the vaccine. No one really knows what happens after the vaccine effectiveness wears out since the vaccine is so new. There are people walking around who have had the vaccine and they may think they will be safe for the rest of their lives. However, the drug companies have no idea about the longevity of the vaccine since they haven't been studying it for decades. If they don't come up with a booster shot in the next 5 years, this will increase the number of people who have it.
Hi very worried
You mention a biopsy of a genital wart. Is this the same as a swab ? I saw what looked like a wart on the shaft but without the cauliflower appearance. I went to a private UK firm who advertise and use private doctors. Came back negative for about 40 strains. My doctor said it was a wart and I went to clinic and had it frozen off. This was a year ago and nothing since. Any thoughts?
Usually swabs are done to women from their GYN. But I guess some doctors are doing that to men now, to something visible. So I guess its OK. He could have just removed it and had it biopsied. What I don't understand is that your wart was negative for 40 strains but was not identified positive for a strain? Very odd. This is why biopsys are preferred as the lab tech is also supposed to identify the strain of the wart.
Not knowing the strain isn't that big of a deal. Glad to hear it never returned.
