What is the most common STI?
Let's pretend that the title of this video
didn't give it away.
The vast majority of us will contract at least one strain of HPV.
That includes you and that includes me.
[INTRO MUSIC]
Warts are very common and we're all
familiar with warts, right? You've seen them.
Maybe you've had some.
They can appear on your toes or your fingers.
They can also appear on your genitals.
I have at least one strain of HPV.
You can see on my hand I have this little
scar from when I got a wart removed last year.
Warts are caused by HPV and there are
over a hundred and fifty strains of it.
Forty of those strains are transmitted
through sex. We can break down those 40
strains into two basic categories.
There are high-risk strains and low-risk strains.
Low-risk strains are the types
that can cause warts. They are low-risk strains
because even though they cause warts
and people see that as a big scary thing
they don't cause cancer.
So you know it's not a risk to your health.
There are two strains that cause
most cases of genital warts.
High-risk strains are labeled high-risk because they're the types
that can cause cancer.
There are 13 different strains that can
cause cancer including 16 and 18.
That's what we found for white patients anyway.
A study by Duke found that black women
actually are more likely to have types
35, 66 and 68. This is a really important note.
We're going back to this.
HPV lives in epithelial cells.
You can think of these as like surface cells that are on your skin
and moist surfaces and it's transmitted through
skin-to-skin contact just like herpes.
The fact that it's so easy to spread around
is part of why a lot of people get it.
Most people don't know they have it.
There aren't really any symptoms unless
it becomes cancerous so it just sort of
flies around all over the place.
Another reason that it's really common is
because there is no FDA-approved HPV test
for males or anyone with a penis.
Yup! You heard that right. There's no way
to test men for HPV.
That's kind of bad because HPV is responsible
for virtually all cervical cancers.
Less commonly but it still happens, HPV
can cause penal, anal and oral cancers.
Fortunately getting cancer from HPV is relatively rare.
About 90 percent of cases just clear up on their own within a couple years.
In more good news, pap smears will prevent HPV from causing cancer.
[LAUGHS] Let me just say a thing about pap smears.
It's like the worst name for a cancer screening ever.
I know that pap smears can
be uncomfortable for people because you
have to get naked. The doctor, you know, swabs
your cervix to look at the cells.
That could be a little bit vulnerable.
It's like, hey, the doctor is just literally in my vulva [LAUGHS] right now.
If your first few pap smears feel a little bit awkward or uncomfortable.
You're completely normal.
It's okay. Just know that this is for your health.
Now in the event that your pap smear does come back abnormal,
don't freak out. It doesn't mean that it's
necessarily cancer or anything bad.
There are a lot of reasons that a result can
be abnormal, and it provides your doctor
with the information they need if they
need to monitor your cervical cells so
that they can catch anything before it becomes cancerous.
Vagina owners, this is
why pap smears are really important.
The CDC recommends that you start getting them when you're 21
and then every three years after that.
Side note: there are also anal pap smears
but they're much less common.
They're usually only used in populations
where someone's considered high-risk.
And guess what there's even more good news
condoms can help lower your risk and
vaccines can prevent HPV entirely.
This is really fucking cool.
Gardasil-9 is a three-shot series and it protects
against the types of HPV that are most
likely to cause problems, but, point to note,
Gardasil-9 isn't quite as
effective for black women as it is for
white women. Why is that? During clinical trials, only 57
out of 2,300 of the studies actually
looked at populations of people from
African descent. So scientists basically
have developed a vaccine that's based on
data from white people.
This wasn't intentional. It wasn't malicious, but it's
significant. We need to be paying
attention to representation in medical studies.
I really hope that the next
update of Gardasil includes more of the
strains that will protect people equally.
When should you get the vaccine?
Kids should be getting it around age 11
before they have any potential
exposure to the virus and you can
get up to age 26. The more of us that are
protected, the less it will spread so get vaccinated! [ECHOES]
[ECHOING] Internet? Did you hear that?
During the first shot, my son got lightheaded
and that made me worry.
I read online that vaccines can cause
autism or other bad side effects.
I just don't trust scientists with these things.
I read this article that said there's aluminum in vaccines,
like actual metal!
There are Web sites online that are spreading
paranoia and fear about vaccines.
Those types of things make us feel scared, right?
Because we all want to feel safe
and protected and parents want to protect their children.
But the fact is vaccines do protect us and they do protect kids.
Vaccines have saved millions of lives
As someone who would like to see a healthier happier world,
please get vaccinated.
If you're feeling a little anxious about vaccines, I think
that, you know, information from reliable
resources is a really good way to calm
those fears. So I'm going to link some
more reading down below.
Okay! There you have it! There is the HPV 101.
There are also overlaps in this
conversation about stigma from STIs
that I already covered in my herpes video
which you can check out here
but other than that, please stay safe and
healthy out there.
Sending lots of love! [KISSES]
I'll see y'all next time.
[GUITAR MUSIC AND SOFT SINGING]
♪ Except your mom ♪ ♪ Oh! ♪
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