jacal5

You are welcome. Yes, I do know it is commonly believed that HPV infection
isn't transmitted by kissing, that's why I was shocked to read about the study. I read an article that stated over 25% of single women haven't had sexual contact in ten years due to fear of STD's, they are being called the "new virgins."

Personally, I wouldn't take the health risk just to go on dates, it's not worth it to me, I'm financially independent and don't need a man for money, and I definitely don't need a man with no symptoms of HPV to give it to me. About five years ago I had a few dates with a retired CSI police officer, and when we were discussing sex, he got angry when I said if we got closer someday, he would need to use a condom (I was worried about HIV back then). He started throwing things in his kitchen sink out of anger and he told me I shouldn't be dating if I wasn't willing to have sex without a condom! I ran out of his house and haven't been on a date since, by choice. Until there is a HPV vaccine for older women and men, my dating days will continue to be over!

The really scary part of all this is no one that I speak to knows anything about HPV transmission, all the women and men I spoke to about it are under the assumption that a condom will protect them, if they even heard of HPV, but most did not, and a few were confusing it with HIV. I became knowledgeable about HPV because a female friend kept asking me questions about HPV testing at the gyn. office, and I knew nothing about it, so I researched. It turns out that my friend has two friends who got cervical cancer because their husbands were cheating (at least that's the reason she gave for the transmissions, her friends are both divorced now) and she wanted to be tested. She got tested a while back, and had an abnormal PAP, had the next test, (I forgot the name of the test, it starts with a c), but it was negative. Now her Pap's are normal.

In my opinion, there should be more public awareness of HPV, the Gardasil commercial is not enough, I don't think anyone really pays attention to the message of the severe health risk of HPV addressed in the commercial. There is no mention of males getting oral cancer from HPV in the media, and since my neighbor's male friend has oral cancer from HPV, it must be spreading like wildfire.