This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Female-to-male HPV transmission more common in couples
New data published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases suggest that HPV transmission occurs more often from women to men in heterosexual partners, highlighting a need for more protection mechanisms for men.
“This occurs not only in monogamous and non-monogamous couples, but also in more newly-established couples and those of longer duration,” Alan Nyitray, PhD, assistant professor in the Center for Infectious Diseases, University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston, told Infectious Disease News. “In addition, transmission of HPV in newly-formed couples is exceedingly common.”
Alan Nyitray
The researchers recruited men from the HPV in Men study, which was led by Anna Giuliano, PhD, at the Moffitt Cancer Center. Those with clinic visits from 2006 to 2010 who indicated that they had a steady female partner were invited to join with their partner. After enrollment, the couples returned to the clinic for four semiannual follow-up visits for HPV testing. The final analysis included 99 couples who were evaluated for 2 years.
During this time, the researchers identified HPV in 82.8% of the couples. Oncogenic HPV types were identified in 64.7% of couples and nononcogenic types were found in 73.7% of the couples. The 12-month cumulative incidence for any HPV genotype was the same for both sexes. Then, to study transmission, the researchers restricted their analysis to 65 couples where one partner had HPV and the other did not. Incident HPV in men was higher than in women for any HPV genotype.
The incidence rate for HPV among men was 12.3 per 1,000 person-months (95% CI, 7.1-19.6) vs. 7.3 per 1,000 person-months (95% CI, 3.5-13.5) for women. The cumulative probability of transmission from a woman to a man was 0.18 (95% CI, 0.09-0.28). For transmission from a man to a woman, the cumulative probability was 0.07 (95% CI, 0.01-0.13).
“I hope that these data challenge the still common fallacy that men are simply carriers of HPV while women get HPV disease,” Nyitray said. “Both men and women harbor HPV and it seems that HPV is more likely to be transmitted from women to men than vice-versa. I hope clinicians keep in mind both males and females when considering HPV prevention activities like vaccination.”
Nyitray said that a future study consideration is HPV transmission among lesbian and gay male couples, since both are at risk for HPV, and there have been no studies of transmission in these couples.
Alan Nyitray, PhD, can be reached at: The University of Texas School of Public Health- Houston, 1200 Pressler, E-707, Houston, TX 77030; email: alan.g.nyitray@uth.tmc.edu.
Disclosure: Nyitray has previously received research funding from Merck. One researcher is an employee of GlaxoSmithKline. One researcher receives research funding from GlaxoSmithKline and Merck and is on the speaker’s bureau of Merck.