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Preventing infection is the best protection – while there is no treatment or cure for HPV itself, the symptoms of HPV can be treated. This means that the only way to protect yourself against HPV is to take precautions to prevent yourself from being infected in the first place.

Below are some of the ways men can protect themselves from HPV:

• HPV vaccine – the HPV vaccine (Gardasil 9) is the most effective method to protect yourself against high-risk types of HPV, which can cause cancer and genital warts. Gardasil 9 protects against HPV-types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58, which are the 9 types of HPV that cause majority of HPV-related diseases and cancers.
• Practicing safe-sex – using condoms every time you have sex lowers the chance that you will be infected by HPV. However, as HPV can be transmitted by skin-to-skin contact, condoms are not 100% effective in preventing the spread of HPV.
• Abstinence or monogamy – abstaining from sex, or only having sex with someone who has only ever had sex with you, is the only way to ensure that you will not contract HPV.
• HPV Tests – most HPV test kits that are available are specifically for women, using a cervical swab to take the sample. Male test kits do exist, but they may be harder to acquire or access. In addition, because HPV is so common; more often than not, it will not lead to health problems Men who have sex with men can get an anal pap test, similar to a cervical screening. This test checks if there are cells in the anus that could become cancerous, so any abnormal cells that have been detected can be removed before they develop into cancer.

In the vast majority of cases, men infected with HPV have no symptoms. Signs of HPV can include warts on the genitals, anus, or groin area; common warts on the hands, fingers, or face; and plantar warts, hard growths on the soles of your feet.

There’s actually no cure for the virus itself. Current treatments are aimed at the symptoms of HPV, such as warts, and include medication and removing growths with cryotherapy or lasers.

Most cases of HPV go away on their own—more than 90 percent of HPV infections are cleared by the immune system within two years, usually within the first six months after infection.

But some strains of HPV aren’t cleared by the body and can cause cancer. Every year, about 19,400 women and 12,100 men are affected by cancers caused by HPV. Genital cancer is much rarer in men than it is in women.