HPV vaccine should be recommended for males

The topic of vaccination for girls against the human papillomavirus (HPV) has received a large amount of attention not only in doctors’ offices, but in the media and, more recently, in politics. TV commercials have launched a “One Less” campaign proclaiming that each HPV vaccination will result in one less woman to develop HPV-related cervical cancer; and Texas governor and presidential candidate Rick Perry has recently drawn criticism for his mandate requiring all young girls to be vaccinated against the virus.

Although there is a large amount of coverage surrounding HPV awareness in females, one essential component is being left out of the equation—males. Rather than solely focusing on promoting the female vaccination to prevent HPV, governments and health agencies should promote vaccinations for males as well.

There is a common misconception that females are the only group that is majorly affected by HPV, since the virus can cause cervical cancer in women. However, HPV doesn’t only lead to cervical cancer, it can cause an array of uncomfortable cancers and diseases in both men and women.

In both females and males, HPV is known to cause anal cancer, genital warts, oropharyngeal cancer (cancer of the back of the throat, including tonsils and the base of the tongue), and recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (which causes warts to grow in the back of the throat). In males, HPV is also known to cause penile cancer.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), there are 40 types of HPV. HPV 16 and 18 are responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancers and 90 percent of anal cancers. HPV 16 accounts for many kinds of throat cancers.

Cervarix and Gardasil are the two HPV vaccines available to patients. Although Cervarix has only been approved for the usage in females, Gardasil is licensed and approved for safe usage in both males and females aged 9 to 25.

The CDC further reports that the increased emphasis that has been placed on the vaccination of women because about 12,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year, and around 4,000 women die from cervical cancer annually.

Even though the numbers are smaller for men, with 1,500 developing anal cancer, 400 developing penile cancer, and 5,600 developing oropharyngeal cancers every year, they should not be neglected in the fight against HPV.

In addition to the lack of awareness surrounding the need of males to receive the HPV vaccine, there is a major need to promote the effects of HPV on males.

Penile cancer, for example, is a horrific and painful form of cancer that receives little to no attention in the media. If one summons the courage to look up penile cancer in a medical textbook, the image is shocking—a twisted, contorted, and painfully split open piece of flesh, disfigured due to the formation of tumors.

Maybe the parents of young boys would be quick to have their sons vaccinated against HPV were shown images of such cancers that HPV-afflicted males can develop.

It may not seem very critical to vaccinate boys against HPV. The fact that only a few thousand males end up developing cancer out of the 20 million sexually active Americans who currently have HPV makes the vaccine not seem as crucial.

However, it is foolish to simply assume that an immune system will be able to fight off HPV. The HPV vaccination would rule out any possibility of infecting another person with the virus and provide protection against cancers and warts. By vaccinating men, it would lower staggering numbers of people infected with HPV, as it would prevent transmission of the virus from males to their partners.

The lack of awareness surrounding HPV in males is astounding, since the cancers caused by HPV can easily be prevented by a vaccine. If males as well as females received the HPV vaccine, thousands of lives could be spared from developing the brutal side effects and cancers that HPV can cause.