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

[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.