Research and Reports in Urology (Nov 2022)
Male Sexual Health Implications of the 2022 Global Monkeypox Outbreak
Abstract
Joshua White,1 Marco-Jose Rivero,1 Arslan I Mohamed,2 Jamie Thomas,3 Akhil Muthigi,1 Farah Rahman,1 Jesse Ory,4 Francis Petrella,5 Ranjith Ramasamy1 1Urology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA; 2Undergraduate Medical Education, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA; 3Undergraduate Medical Education, Nova Southeastern University Kiran Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA; 4Urology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; 5Urology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, CanadaCorrespondence: Joshua White; Ranjith Ramasamy, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: The 2022 global monkeypox (MPX) outbreak is the largest in history to occur outside of endemic African regions. Disease spread during this outbreak has been primarily through human-to-human transmission, with sexual contact being of particular concern. Clinical presentations have commonly featured genital, perianal, and oral lesions associated with sexual activity among men who have sex with men (MSM), who compose the vast majority of MPX cases. This review discusses the epidemiology, clinical features, and evaluation of MPX with regards to men’s sexual health. Comparisons were made between MPX and its relative from the Orthopoxvirus genus, smallpox, in order to make informed inferences on the potential effects of MPX on men’s sexual health. This review also discusses the role of men’s health specialists and urologists in addressing the current outbreak.Keywords: monkeypox, infertility, sexual health, transmission, men’s health
