Dr. Keith Perdue

OPINION:

Women’s Health and HPV

HPV is not a friendly virus to humans. It causes warts, both genital and ordinary, cervical cancer (approximately 90 women per year die of this in Ireland). It causes vaginal cancer and vulval cancer, some cancers of the head and neck and laryngeal papillomas (warts on the voice box or vocal cords). Not content with that, it causes anal cancer and in men it causes cancer of the penis.

Since 2014, an anti-HPV vaccine has been offered to girls in their first year of secondary school, which was preceded by a ‘catch-up’ programme for those girls who had missed it. Gardasil vaccine may be a distant school memory, like First Communion and the trip to Tayto Park. But if for some reason you missed the vaccine, is it ‘too late’? Well, not if you are a man or woman who has never had sex. And even if you have had sex, you may not have been exposed to the ‘high-risk’ types of the virus.

There are many different types of the human papilloma virus, and 13 of them are high risk. However just two, 16 and 18 are the main nasties, causing 70 per cent of cervical cancer and 95 per cent of anal cancer. So even though you have had sex, you may not have been exposed to these bad lads. In the US, the CDC licences anti-HPV vaccine up to the age of 26 in women, and 21 in men.

So, can you check to see if you have already been affected? The answer is yes, but only if you have a cervix. It’s possible to do a special type of cervical smear that identifies if a woman’s cervix has been affected by HPV. It’s important to note that a normal smear done by Cervicalcheck here in Ireland does not rule out HPV infection, it just may be that the virus is yet to have an affect.

So at least from a woman’s viewpoint, she knows if paying well over €500 for the three injections of anti-HPV vaccine is likely to be worthwhile. There are three different types of anti-HPV vaccine in Ireland, the difference being the range of sub-types protected against. Men, being a cervix-free zone, just have to take the chance, although there is no evidence to suggest that giving anti-HPV vaccine to anyone already affected is harmful.

Dr. Keith Perdue is a member of the team at Grafton Medical, www.graftonmedical.ie