ways HPV can be contracted

[spokenonlyonce.livejournal.com]

I hope no one minds if I start a whole new post on this, instead of asking in comments from the other post where HPV is being discussed. I'm starting a new post because I think it is very important that we all have as much infromation as possible about how HPV can in fact be contracted.

Because HPV is an STI, there is controversy over a vaccination for it, and many people think that as long as you engage in "safe sex" you shouldn't have to have the vaccine. However, it has been stated already that HPV can be passed from skin contact, so condoms do not protect against it as well as they prevent, say, HIV.

I have heard, though, that you can even contract HPV from things like toilet seats, for instance if you go into a toilet right after another woman has used it and neither of you uses seat protectors. I do not know this to be true. Can anyone confirm or deny (and ideally cite sources) that HPV can be transmitted in indirect ways like this?

Comments

[emmycantbemeeko.livejournal.com]

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mtoilet.html

I suppose, it's theoretically possible, if someone with an STI rubbed their genital area on a toilet seat, and then another person very quickly came and rubbed their genital area on the same seat, there might be disease transmission. But that really hardly counts as normal use- I don't know how everyone else uses the john, but my genital region never touches the seat, cause, well, why would it? The seat is there to support your outer thighs while you excrete, not to hump.

That said, I don't think there's absolute evidence one way or another, but the overwhelming opinion of the sites I've googled seems to be that it's pretty massively unlikely. Toilet seats are dry, non-porous surfaces, regularly cleaned (one hopes), and normally used in a way which does not bring them into contact with the genitals.

I do wish women would stop hovering over the seats, though. Because that definitively does cause urine-and-fecal-matter-to-seat transmission, and that is NASTY, PEOPLE. If you're too scared to use a public toilet, wait till you get home. Don't piss all over it for the rest of us, though.

[free-me07.livejournal.com]

I so agree about the hovering. It is highly unlikely that any disease can be spread from a toilet seat (especially one that appears clean and dry) with normal use. My mother is an RN, and she always taught me that there is no point in hovering.

[mermaiddrowning.livejournal.com]

Well besides the fact that you may not want to get some else's urine on your tush =)

[free-me07.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I wouldn't sit on a wet toilet seat, but I would wipe it off and sit right down (as long as the wetness did not appear to be blood... I do have my limits). Urine generally is sterile; however, if everyone sat, there would be much less splattering! :)

[mermaiddrowning.livejournal.com]

I know that urine is sterile and that the risk of contracting a disease from someone else's urine is extremely low, but that doesn't mean I want to stick my tush in someone else's pee, lol.

I agree, if everyone stopped hoovering and used those toilet seat protector (or even took the time to put down tp to create a barrier if they are that concerned) we wouldn't have to worry about anything. Until that happens though, I'll stick to hoovering when the occasion calls for it.

[violet-tigress1.livejournal.com]

Hovering is a dangerous thhing. My theory is: if you sit, you won't fall in something nastier than pee.

[mermaiddrowning.livejournal.com]

lol, thanks for the tip but I think I'll be alright =)

[lost-almost.livejournal.com]

Yep, urine is sterile when it comes out of the body. However, I doubt it is after being on toilet seat. Besides, most places where I live do not have the seat protector things.

[eat-your-heart.livejournal.com]

I'm like you. I SIT on the seat and if I see some pee on it prior I just wipe it off first.

[pinkdramon.livejournal.com]

I do wish women would stop hovering over the seats, though. Because that definitively does cause urine-and-fecal-matter-to-seat transmission, and that is NASTY, PEOPLE. If you're too scared to use a public toilet, wait till you get home. Don't piss all over it for the rest of us, though.

Written on the wall of a public restroom stall:
"If you don't squat, none of us will have to either."

Indeed.