Persistent HPV infection is best known as the primary cause of cervical cancer, but it can also lead to cancers of the anus and penis.
Preventing HPV infection in men may help lower the odds of those latter cancers, and cut their chances of transmitting the virus to their female partners -- potentially helping to prevent some cases of cervical cancer.
While condom use has been shown to lower the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, studies have yielded conflicting results as to whether condoms help lower men's HPV risk.
One reason may be that HPV is easily transmitted, including any genital-to-genital contact, and some studies in which men have been tested for HPV in areas not protected by condoms have failed to show that condoms lower infection risk.
For the new study, researchers led by Carrie M. Nielson, of Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, tested 463 men between the ages of 18 and 40 for 37 types of HPV. Testing was performed on swabbed samples from the penis, as well as areas not protected by condoms.