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Abstract

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are associated with sexual behavior. Changes in the sexual habits of couples and their impact on male genital and oral HPV infections were determined during 7 years of follow-up (FU). At baseline and 7 years FU, urethral, semen/penile, and oral samples were collected from 46 men and cervical and oral samples of their spouses for HPV DNA detection. Demographic data and risk factors of spouses were recorded by questionnaire at both time points and analyzed for concordance. HPV genotyping was done with the Multimetrix® kit. At baseline, 29.5 % of the male genital and 11 % of their oral samples tested positive. Incident genital HPV infection was found in 23 % and oral infection in 10.9 % of men. Genotype-specific persistence was detected in one man (HPV53) in genital samples. Moderate to almost perfect concordance of changes in sexual habits during FU among spouses were found. Changing partners [p = 0.028; odds ratio (OR) = 15; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.355–166.054] and marital status (p = 0.001; 95 % CI 0.000–0.002) increased the risk of incident genital HPV infections. The overall outcome of genital HPV disease in men was linked to the frequency of sexual intercourse (p = 0.023; 95 % CI 0.019–0.026) and changes in marital status (p = 0.022; 95 % CI 0.019–0.026), while oral HPV infections were associated with the number of sexual partners (p = 0.047; 95 % CI 0.041–0.052). Taken together, asymptomatic genital HPV infections among the men were common. The risk of incident genital HPV infections increased among men reporting a change of sexual partner during FU, implicating that a stable marital relationship protects against oral and genital HPV infection.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Marjut Rintala, Dr. Virpi Rantanen, and midwife Elisa Hovimäki for participating in the enrolment of the women in the Finnish Family HPV (FFHPV) study and their clinical follow-up. The skillful technical assistance of Mrs. Tatjana Pescova, Mariia Henttinen, and Keitlin Adel is gratefully acknowledged. The FFHPV study has been supported by the Academy of Finland, Finnish Cancer Foundation, Government Special Foundation (EVO) to Turku University Hospital, the Finnish Society against Sexually Transmitted Infection, and Orion Corporation

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Kero, K.M., Rautava, J., Syrjänen, K. et al. Stable marital relationship protects men from oral and genital HPV infections. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 33, 1211–1221 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-014-2061-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-014-2061-7

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